Rhyfel Byd 1914-1918 a’r profiad Cymreig / Welsh experience of the First World War 1914-1918 (www.cymru1914.org) is a mass digital archive of the primary sources relating to the First World War in Wales. It was funded by the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from February 2012-October 2013. The project has digitized archives, manuscripts, photographs, art works, and oral histories held by the archives and special collections of Wales to create a coherent, consolidated digital collection revealing the often hidden history of the impact of the War:
an invaluable resource for teaching, research, and public engagement that is available to support many aspects of the commemoration of the centenaries of the First World War.
The Research Programme in Digital Collections at the National Library of Wales has carried out research into the use and impact of the digital collections of Wales, and these studies have identified key interventions in the digital life-cycle that can increase the impact of digital resources by a wide variety of stakeholders. The development of Cymru1914.org incorporated these findings. This presentation will discuss the development of this digital resource, and in particular, it will highlight ways that considerations of end-use and impact were built into project planning. This includes selection of content, interface development, community engagement, and planning for long-term sustainability of the finished digital resource. We will also discuss detailed analysis of the use of the resources since its launch in November 2013, in order to understand the full extent of the use and impact of the resource internationally.
1. Cymru1914.org: Understanding Use
and Impact of a First World War
Digital Archive
Prof Lorna Hughes, Dr Owain Roberts, Paul McCann
Research Programme in Digital Collections
National Library of Wales
Ymchwil
Research
lorna.hughes@llgc.org.uk
@lornamhughes
5 September 2014 | Digital Humanities Congress 2014
2. Ymchwil
Research
IMPACT
Mike Beauregard – CC BY 2.0 - inside Canyon Diablo meteor crater
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31856336@N03/12419204375/
3. AN AFTERTHOUGHT?
Ymchwil
free was an afterthought by turn off your computer and go outsideR CeCs BeYa-NrcC-hS A 2.0
www.flickr.com/photos/turn_off_your_computer_and_go_outside/9264162137
4. Ymchwil
Research
200,000 pages
newspapers
photographs
archives
cymru1914.org
cymruww1.llgc.org.uk (Project Blog)
@CymruWW1
50 hours of audio
20 hours of audio visual
70% English
30% Welsh
Freely available online
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
6. Key Impact Factors
Ymchwil
Research
(Hypothesis)
• Lowering barriers to access
– Free access; ease of resource discovery; clarity of resource
description; accessibility
• Factoring in long-term uptake and embedding
– Access to data; citation support; visibility to key communities;
stakeholder engagement
• Sustainable, open technical platform
– Open data and API; using scalable, open technical platforms;
integrated into institutional priorities for long-term sustainability
• User-led design
– Ensuring appropriate content; interface design; iterative user testing
7. Ymchwil
Research
Lowering barriers to access
Long-term uptake and embedding
Sustainable, open technical platform
User-led design
Key Impact Factors
(Hypothesis)
8. Ymchwil
Research
Available
collections
What rights
issues are
there?
What are
the
Research
Questions?
CONTENT THAT PACKS
A PUNCH!
11. Ymchwil
Research
Google Analytics – Preliminary Results
1 in 5 users spend more than 10 minutes on the site
Session Duration % Sessions
More than 1 min 43%
More than 3 min 33%
More than 10 min 20%
More than 30 min 9%
17. Ymchwil
Research
Sustainability and re-use
Online exhibition using
Omeka, using digital
archives from
Cymru1914.org
Dr Paul O’Leary
Aberystwyth University
merthyrww1.llgc.org.u
k
19. Cymru1914.org: Understanding Use
and Impact of a First World War
Digital Archive
Ymchwil
Research
Prof Lorna Hughes
University of Wales Chair in Digital Collections
National Library of Wales
lorna.hughes@llgc.org.uk
@lornamhughes
September 5th 2014 | Digital Humanities Congress 2014
Hinweis der Redaktion
As a National Library we are very keen that the resources that we develop pack a punch.
Clare Warwick – If we build – will they come?
Then came our chance to do this:
Cymru 1914 The Welsh Experience of the First World War
Mass digitization project
£500,000 (€ 620k) funding from Jisc e-Content programme
Also funded by partner contributions (total budget £1,000,000 or ~ €1.25m)
All-Wales Collaboration through Welsh Higher Education Libraries Forum (WHELF)
Partnership of Archives and Special Collections of Wales
A major focus for Welsh centenary research, education, and commemoration
So what do we know about the factors that increase impact?
Some have been identified
See Abstract for Citations
Lowering barriers to access
Free access; ease of resource discovery; clarity of resource description; accessibility
Factoring in long-term uptake and embedding
Access to data; citation support; visibility to key communities; stakeholder engagement
Sustainable, open technical platform
Open data and API; using scalable, open technical platforms; integrated into institutional priorities for long-term sustainability
User-led design
Ensuring appropriate content; interface design; iterative user testing
Design also included the selection of the content
Research Suggests that the more engaged stakeholders are in the process of design the more they will engage and ‘own’ the resource.
So what are the ingredients for a resource that packs a punch?
1. Archivists and librarians draw up long lists of possible collections
2. Consultation with academics – asking which high level questions research required further investiation
3. Rights management part of selection process; all digital content BY-NC-SA
Involving academics and stakeholders is a lot of work – It is much easier to design it yourself and go!
But we did 2 specific things:
Working with colleagues from the University of Sheffield (see References in the Abstract) we held a Paticipatory Design workshop where invited potential users were given the opportunity to view some of the source material and brainstorm about what would be important to them and how they would want to handle the material digitally.
One of the biggest challenges with the user interface was the archival interface. Numerous design cylces were expended and we came up with something like this…
0-10 Seconds represents the ‘bounced’ visits
Distribution of sessions centred around 181-600 seconds (3-10 minutes) shows that users are engaging with the site
… and the page depth data also shows clearly that of the users who are engaging with the site they are engaging very deeply.
For example, we interviewd a Welsh Television Producer who has been making programmes about the First World War
“I’ve spent hours of my life on that website – it’s addictive”
Although I said that I would cover it – I wanted to demonstrate to you how this resource is a platform for further work. This is an online exhibiiton created by a History Lecturer at Aberystwyth University.
He said that this resource had reduced the time it would have taken to create such exhibition from 1 year to 2 weeks.
Paul O’leary told us that he was a much more engaged – need Champions of the Content – academic credibility
Gethin Mathews – cultivate the community of practice….
Our latest project is one that will leverage the archive by allowing schoolchildren to create biographies of the fallen in the First World War.
