Information Papers

This series of papers is intended to address key areas affecting the successful development of digitisation projects.

NOF-digitise and Curriculum Online

How to integrate learning materials created by the NOF-digitise programme into Curriculum Online

Open Archives Initiative, Metadata Harvesting and the NOF Portal

This Information paper outlines the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and outlines the ways in which it might be used to enable users to search to find materials from across the huge range of projects in the NOF-digitise Programme.

Evaluation and Impact assessment for NOF digitise projects

This paper outlines approaches to the measurement of the impact of resources created as part of the NOF-digitise programme. It examines the concept of 'Impact' and ways in which it may be measured.

Website perfomance indicators

A paper giving background information for NOF projects when filling in the website usage section of the quarterly monitoring form

Writing for the Web

Writing specifically about online collections is a new and emerging skill, for which few guidelines currently exist. Best practice is based upon writing ‘universal text’ for exhibitions, accessibility guidelines and web usability studies. This paper gives more detail on relevant areas.

Web Site Performance Monitoring

Monitoring the performance of your Web site is an important task in understanding the level of its success. NOF-digitise projects are expected to use performance indicators to provide an objective measure of the usage of their Web service. This should be done through the monitoring of Web server log files, and by providing regular reports to NOF. This paper gives information on the meaning of Web statistics, using externally-hosted Web statistical analysis services and other performance indicators.

Guidelines for Setting Up NOF-digitise Web Sites

This information paper provides advice and guidance to NOF funded projects on setting up their project Web sites. The areas covered include the Domain Name, Directory Structures, File Formats, Design Issues, Navigation and Auditing Your Web Site.

An Introduction to Collection-Level Description

NOF-digitise projects will create valuable collections of resources; they will also create descriptions of those resources in the form of metadata records. Such metadata records may include descriptions of collections as well as of individual items. This paper describes approaches to such "collection-level description" and highlights the important role it will play in enhancing access to NOF-digitise resources.

Metadata Sharing and XML

This paper explains how the use of XML might contribute to the sharing of information about  valuable project resources developed. The first part of the paper contains a brief overview of metadata, with particular emphasis on metadata for resource discovery. The main part of the paper then explains what XML is and provides some background on the development of the XML specification, a brief overview of some features of XML and some examples of how XML is used. Finally, we examine how well XML meets the requirements for the exchange of metadata.

Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems (CMS) are strongly recommended by the Technical Advisory Service as the most efficient way of managing your digital collections. This paper looks at exactly what is a CMS, how they work, why they are important and how to find the best one for your project.

The Digitisation Process

The nof-digitise Technical Standards and Guidelines set out how digitisation should be undertaken in NOF funded projects. This document looks at the essential issues of the digitisation process that should be addressed during the project planning stages and discusses techniques for creating digital files that will conform to the guidelines.

Income generation and sustainability

Projects funded through the nof-digitise programme are expected to remain sustainable for at least three years beyond the lifetime of NOF funding. Therefore projects must give consideration to ways of establishing a sustainable basis for development. This paper focusses on the issues associated with income generation and sustainability for digitisation projects. It looks at the range of income generating options available and considers their advantages and disadvantages for NOF funded projects.