Approaches to Sustaining Lottery Funded Digitisation Projects

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Approaches to Sustaining Lottery Funded
Digitisation Projects
Collaboration for SustainabilityMaking Cultural
and Heritage Projects Viable Long Term
Chris Anderson Head of Programmes
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Overview of NOF-digitise programme

• 50 million to fund wide range of UK public
  Internet content
• Emphasis on digitising learning materials -
  creating digital resources from existing analogue
  originals and copies.
• 150 projects funded across a wide range of
  public, community, voluntary sector and
  commercial organisations
• predominance of public sector grant recipient and
  projects related to cultural content

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Sustainability Requirements

• Infrastructure costs - hosting costs, web-master
  services, content and software licences,
  promotion, maintenance/storage of digital masters
• Content costs - updating, developing or expanding
  content, shelf-life issues and technical
  standards
• Interactivity costs - responding to enquiries,
  uploading customer provided content, monitoring
  usage and responding to explicit or perceived
  needs
• 3 year post completion requirement for
  NOF-digitise funded projects

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Supporting Sustainability

• Providing a new opportunity for the
  organisations that received funding
• Business plan at Stage 2 of application process
  required sustainability planning
• Information paper produced at Stage 2 as guidance
  for projects
• Facilitating programme learning and networking

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General Approaches to Sustainability

• Website becomes a core organisational mechanism
• Generate income through charges - value added
  services, wider use of digital assets, unique
  product
• Sponsorship
• Advertising
• Third Party Services
• Platform for further development

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Sustainability through need or demand

• Provide content that supports the core needs of
  the organisation - advice, information, customer
  contact, public opinion, discharging core
  organisational responsibilities
• Help meet organisations Performance Indicators
  National Museums, Best Value
• Make the site so well used that the organisation
  and/or partners and stakeholders value the access
  to customers that it provides
• Make the site so popular that withdrawal or
  closure would result in a negative impact in
  terms of public response - will we see save our
  website campaigns?

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Case Study 1 - Liverpool Libraries Service

• Success of the Mersey Gateway site (part of the
  Port Cities consortia) has led to an increased
  profile of the service and the site within the
  Council.
• This in turn has led the Council to underwrite
  the costs of hosting and maintenance for three
  years.
• The framework that the site provides will supply
  opportunities to expand and develop the nature of
  local content into the future
• The longer that the site continues for the
  greater the number of users (especially local
  ones) that will know about and use the site.
  Once it is established as the primary source of
  on-line information of a specific type it then
  becomes relatively easy to make the case for
  funding to sustain and develop it into the future

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Other Examples of Websites supporting core needs

• National Library for the Blind - commitment to
  sustain and develop the site into the future as
  it is seen as a key part of the organisational
  service delivery
• Multikulti continues to support users, new
  technical development has won a national award in
  September 2004

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Generating Income Through Charges

• Individual charge to access high quality digital
  images and video - British Pathe
  (http//www.britishpathe.com/prices.html)
• Group licences to access high quality digital
  images - SCRAN (http//www.scran.ac.uk)
• The site serves as a sales point for a range of
  related goods -Tate On-line (http//www.tate.org.u
  k/shop)
• Product is sufficiently unique that it has
  potential for selling licences to set up similar
  sites in other countries Bookforager
  (http//www.whichbook.net)
• re-purposing material to meet curriculum
  materials and selling to schools through
  Curriculum Online

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Case Study 2 Courtauld Institute of Art

• Have established a print service to generate
  income through on-line sale of high quality
  images using another organisations web site
  (http//www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/insight/buyp
  rint_instructions.html)
• Currently developing a detailed funding proposal
  to HEFCE (HEIF2) to develop a self-sustaining
  image service offering high quality material from
  the Courtauld and other collections

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Sponsorship and Advertising

• The nature of the site makes it attractive to
  potential sponsors Am Baile (http//www.ambaile.or
  g.uk) sponsored from Highlands and Island
  Enterprise. National Horseracing Museum
  (http//www.nhrm.co.uk) sponsored by Ladbrokes
• The nature of the digital material being offered
  enables other parties responsibilities to be
  delivered. LASA/Multikulti (http//www.multikulti
  .org.uk) consultancy services on community and
  specialist language translation
• The profile of the visitors to the site enables
  niche marketing of commercial goods and services

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Case Study 3

• SEAMLESS - portal for local information developed
  by Essex County Council - (http//www.essexonline.
  gov.uk/vip8/eol/EssexOnline/display/home/index.jsp
  )
• Have been able to secure further e-government
  funding to develop and are getting other local
  authorities to buy in to the portal
  service/design
• Portal carries a number of links to commercial
  and public sites providing information and
  services - homes, jobs, cars, holidays etc.

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Third Party Services

• Organisations have set up and equipped
  digitisation studios to deliver nof-Digi projects
  and then use these to generate income by offering
  digitising services
• Bristol City Council
• British Pathe
• British Library

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Platform for development

• NOF-digitise projects provide a basis for further
  development
• eGovernment
• JISC
• Heritage Lottery Fund
• MLA
• Renaissance in the Regions
• Designation Challenge Fund

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Conclusions

• Determine the on-going costs of website at the
  project development stage
• Imagine the value added services that can be
  provided
• Generate sustainability through working with
  partners
• Investigate the opportunities to generate income,
  attract sponsorship or provide a unique service
• Think how you can make your website invaluable to
  users and stakeholders
• Invest time in considering approaches to
  sustainability
• Save money by looking for the best deals on
  hosting etc
• Encourage user feedback to ensure site develops
  to meet customer needs