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THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GARFIELD
A DISCOURSE
BEFORE THE SOUTH PLACE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY,
SEPTEMBER 25, 1881,
' BY
MONCURE D. CONWAY.
LONDON :
II, SOUTH
PLACE,
FINSBURY.
PRICE TWOPENCE
�FREDERIC
G. HICKSON & Co.
257, High Ho lb o ku,
Lohdoh, W.C.
�THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GARFIELD.
~jp|~ OW good-hearted is this much abused old world
fr>
of ours-—this great world of men, women and
children! Theologians have pronounced it depraved.
VZ
wrote—
Even poets have called it hard and unfeeling ; as one
“ Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn.”
Yet, even in his indictment, the poet suggests the
fundamental goodness of human nature, since he calls
its reverse ‘ inhumanity.’ Were human nature bad,
to be humane would be also bad ; the more humanity,
the more depravity. The race records in its language
the simple verdict on itself, that to be human is to be
good-hearted; the evil heart is inhuman.
Really it is
man’s ignorance of man that makes countless thousands
mourn.
The great world moves on its daily round of
toils and joys, self-centred as its planet, and heeds
little, because it sees little, the agonies of those crushed
ec beneath its wheels. But when it does see such, when
st its unheeding rush and roar is arrested by some salient
tragedy; when its innumerable eyes are fixed upon a
deed in which all the evil powers of nature are seen
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venting their triumphant cruelty upon innocence and
excellence; then the human race has but one heart,
purely good: under it the depraved is shown to be not
man, but monster; the excellent is immortalised.
The great crime against humanity, consummated in
the death of the President, has moved the heart of
humanity.
The Court in mourning reflects a sorrow
felt in every cottage and hall.
The money-changers
turn from their speculations to bow their heads before
a poor man carried to his grave four thousand miles
away. ’Tis a tragedy all can comprehend. There
have been cases where crowned assassins of men and
women have felt in their own hearts the weapon they
had used against others.
Though it be deplorable
that any man of the people should degrade himself
to the foul -weapon of tyrants, we must sometimes say
that, if despots dislike assassination, they should avoid
setting the example.
But in this case there is nothing
to confuse the judgment of mankind.
The eye of the
world is brought face to face with an infrahuman
spirit acting through forces of the human form, and
sees beside the fallen man the real Satan with which
all real saviours have to measure their strength.
The universal cry of horror, sympathy, indignation,
is really a protest of the human heart against the
cruelties of brute nature, and, however unconsciously,
brands the creeds that deify the destructive powers of
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nature.
“ Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord of the
creeds; “Vengeance is mine,” says the assassin of the
President. How does the reciter of the creeds like
deified vengeance when mirrored in the crime of a
vindictive man ?
poet—•
Their real faith is rather that of the
“ A loving worm within its sod
Were cliviner than a loveless God
Amid His worlds.”
Man cannot worship the ancient images of elemental
force. Those old dogmas have left phrases upon our
EiJ lips about the inscrutable dispensations of Providence;
rd but they have no root in the millions of hearts that
now rise in grief and wrath against a great wrong and
oh
calamity.
The ancient sacerdotal theology regarded calamities
of this kind, falling upon eminent men or families, as
the carrying out of fatal decrees of the gods. The
victims might be quite innocent, but they had to suffer
vicariously for the offence of some remote ancestor.
Nor was this notion merely ‘pagan.’
In Christian
theology, all pain and death are the doom of ancestral
sin, and there are instances in the Bible where Jehovah
rh strikes the innocent for the sin of the guilty (Exod. xi.,
2 Sam. xii.), just as the house of Atreus is divinely
hunted down for a remote ancestral offence.
That pitiful providence (if we may so speak of a-
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phantasy of the primitive brain) measuring its strength
against the innocence unsuspecting its malice,—too
weak to punish justly, strong only in cruelty, power
less to protect,—is a providence no longer believed in.
We only know that it was once believed in, by a
bequest of cant phrases, which, if they meant any
thing to-day, would mean that the murderer Guiteau
belongs to the divine administration. Of course, these
dogmatic anachronisms -will survive for a long time
yet, on paper, and in conventional rites and forms.
A great many interests will see to that.
They are
not amenable to reason, because not products of
reason. In a sense, therefore, they are unanswerable.
The Prince of Wales was very ill.
The churches and
chapels all prayed for him, and he recovered.
It was
claimed as an answer to prayer. The President lay long
in agony and peril, which even his assassin pitied. The
churches and chapels of
a hundred millions of
Christians, the very synagogues of Palestine, prayed for
his recovery. He died. (The whole human world, with
one voice, supplicated its God for this one life j and he
who could raise his personal friends out of their graves
in Palestine would not answer the prayer of all man-
kind in behalf of his devout worshipper in A m erica!)
This, of course, is said to be a mysterious dispensation
of God.
assailable.
Whatever the event, Theology is thus un
Common-sense may ask whethei' God cares
�more for Prince than for President ; whether typhoid
fevers and assassins are heavenly ministers, and, if so,
whether physicians should resist the one or judges
sentence the other.
But common-sense will ask in
vain. Theology will go on with its days of thanks
giving or of humiliation, because its appeal now is
to those who do not think, nor inquire (whether from
incompetence or fear) ; and who so cannot realise that
their creeds are the stultification of their true hearts
and sincerest lives.
But let us be of
good cheer!
Amid these
hereditary euphemisms about evil, now and then the
real heart of mankind speaks, and we recognise that
it does not regard wrong and cruelty as divine in any
sense.
It has an unsophisticated answer to the
widow’s cry, “ Oh, why am I made to suffer this cruel
blow ! ” It resents the blow, providential or not. It
hates the villainy and the baseness with loathing.
It loves mercy and justice.
This is the feeling that
lies deep down in all—even in those who pay lip-
service to a God of Wrath and Vengeance. This is the
-divinely human sentiment which has been brought out
legibly, as if on every man’s forehead, by the tragedy
at Washington; and it is a prophecy of the coming
•of the true son of man.
In this passionate sympathy
with goodness and horror of evil, lies the hope of
man’s salvation from all evil.
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The heart of humanity is man’s time providence.
It is that which ever brings good out of evil.
It has
been my lot to witness, and study, the effect of the
dastardly assassination of two of the noblest American
Presidents. Many of you will remember the dismay
spread by the tidings that Abraham Lincoln, liberator
of his country from slavery, had fallen.
The bullet
that pierced his heart evoked all that was best in the
heart of his country and of England.
There had been
up to that time a large number of persons in this
country utterly deceived as to the spirit of slavery,
who still sympathised with the lost cause of the south,
because they did not recognise that those valiant
defenders of slavery were its chief victims.
The
murderous bullet that slew Lincoln slew that party
here.
There was also a spirit of mistaken clemency in
America, which, respecting a brave foe fallen, was
about to make concessions which, it is now seen, might
have repaired the evil system that had engendered
civil strife.
President Lincoln shared that spirit.
But his death revealed to the people the irrecoverable
nature of slavery, and they extirpated it.
So did the
providential human heart educe good out of evih
And it will do so again in this case.
done so.
Already it has
This terrible tragedy has not only revealed
to the peoples on both sides the Atlantic in how
profound a sense they are of one blood—that their
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•common blood is thicker than the ocean of water that
divides them—but it has united the North and the
South in America in a feeling that has not before
■existed between them for two generations.
They are
gathered to-day in the unity of sorrow around their
dead President. The spirit of faction, too, which had
raised
its head
in the North,
some
of
whose
venom the murderer had caught, has received its
check. And all these benefits following a great crime
lay not in that crime at all, but in the good sense and
just heart of the people. They represent in a swift
and startling way the process which, in slow ways, is
always going on.
It is that which has thus far
civilised the earth. The steady pressure of the good
against the evil in the world; the gradual turning of
experience into wisdom, the lessons of suffering
teaching the laws of well-being, shadows of error
pointing to the light of truth—these make the law of
human progress and the evolution of a true man upon
the earth.
The subject that had been named for to-day’s dis
course was, “ Our life estate.”
By that I meant that
to each man his life is an estate which he inherits ; in
which he has a life interest; which even for the poorest
holds many treasures; an estate necessarily transmitted
by each, improved or unimproved, to be the inheritance
of others. The tremendous event which has super
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seded that topic, has, beyond its startling voice, a still
small voice that may well impress upon us this lesson
concerning a man’s life estate, and the way it goes on
after he has died out of it.
Behold the dead President lying in the Rotunda of
the Capitol, where the sympathy of a world surges
around him and breaks into tears!
Prom poor and
honest parents he received his life estate.
It was in
a small corner of the world—a lowly estate—but
all sound and honest, and large enough to give
play to the greatest principles
and activities of
man’s nature. The father came of one of those old
English families that crossed the ocean to build a new
England where conscience might be free. He was a
pioneer of civilisation in the forests of Ohio, and died
of a disease caught while defending his fields from a
forest fire.
The harvest was saved, though the farmer
died. The brave mother and her children struggled on,
and their courage and energy prevailed. The boy had
a strong constitution, a love of work, and a thirst for
knowledge. He earned money by driving the mules that
drew canal boats. There was nothing noble about that;
he was neither proud of it or ashamed of it. It was his
lot in life, and he fulfilled its duties.
to a larger lot.
He studied
But he aspired
hard.
He and his
mother laid up money enough for him to go to
college.
He climbed to
his degree; he climbed
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f
beyond it,
)
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difficulties.
There was no sleight-of-hand in his
culture. He became a scholar, afterwards a College
I,
President. As with every healthy young man, his
religious sentiment began to develop. The region
around him was now populous, even fashionable, and
all the great sects were there. This youth selected to
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step by step, without any leaps over
take his place among a very humble circle, who called
themselves “ Disciples of Christ.” They have no
creed. They are generally believers in the super
natural character of Christ, but refuse to use the word
“Trinity,” or in any way to bind themselves with any
to . of the hereditary formulas called creeds.
This gave
ft them freedom to grow with the mind of their country.
T They are the youngest of the denominations, founded
ii| in 1827, but they have grown fairly well in culture
J
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and influence. A telegram in the London Times says
the funeral to-morrow will be conducted by the late
President’s chaplain. But the President never had
any chaplain. Such an office does not exist; and, if
fj ‘ it did, the late President would have abhorred it.
H He used to gather the students of his college in the
rfe
chapel, and lecture to them on many different sub
©j jects,—sometimes on writings of Tennyson, Carlyle,
Emerson, Darwin, and other contemporary authors.
B His spirit was thoroughly liberal. He had not in him
a drop of sectarian blood ; his Christianity consisted
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in a sincere desire to make the love and heroism and
gentleness of Christ an influence upon the life of
himself and others.
As he had not taken the side of the conventional
and powerful in religion, but associated himself with
humble, creedless, “Disciples of Christ,” so, in politics,
he joined himself to the small band of constitutional
opponents of slavery who knew nothing but defeat.
The republican (then “free-soil”) party which now
rules the United States was laughed at as a feeble
fanaticism when Garfield began speaking and working
for it. It had nothing to offer or to promise him.
Few could have then dreamed that this century would
witness its success.
But slavery had the keen instinct
to foresee its doom in that small concert of free hearts,
and met its slow though steady growth with a mad
blow at the Union.
Then the College President sprang forward to his
country’s rescue. With a hundred students from the
college over which he had presided, to begin with, he
formed, his regiment.
They marched to the front and
won the first Union victory in that war.
When he
had faithfully served his country through the war. his
neighbours sent him to Congress, where he did much
to save the harvest of the battle-field—namely
emancipation, and the constitutional equality of races
which alone could secure it.
For slavery, foiled in
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battle, was aiming to gain political control of the
slaves it had lost.
So did this man bravely and faithfully improve the
life estate he had received from the past—from his
English ancestor who helped to found the freedom of
New England, from his father who cleared forests in
Ohio. ’Tis said there will be sung over Garfield’s grave
his favourite hymn, <£ Ho, reapers of Life’s harvest! ”
Possibly when he used to sing it he remembered how
his father died from trying to save his harvest—the
bread of his family—from a forest-fire.
They who
now sing it will remember that it was while protecting
the great national field from an encroaching evil that
the President received his death-wound.
The reapers
of the harvest of his life will bitterly feel the grief
that he cannot share their harvest-home.
of his own harvest-home?
But what
What becomes of the
faithful servant’s life estate? < Does that die too? Is
that shrunken form of the powerful man, which his
friends shudder to look upon,— is that the end of
James Abram Garfield?
The symbols that surrounded him as he lay in state
in the Capitol, reveal the compassionate longing of
the human heart that the great wrong shall be
righted, and to him personally.
It seems too bad,
too cruel, that one who from the tow-path had
climbed by patient, honest steps up to the White
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House, should have all his honours and joys snatched
away, ere tasted—his highest success turned to dust,
his happiness to agony, his great opportunity made
his death ! So beside him a shaft built of roses has
on its broken top, nestling amid immortelles, the dove
that mourns, with downbent head; while on his
pillow is the dove with uplifted eye and wing, about
to fly away
emblem of his soul.
Over him is sus
pended the crown of righteousness gleaming against
the black draped canopy of the dome.
All these are
symbols of the faith that the late President’s personal
possession of his life-estate has not ended. In earlier
ages such enthusiasms have given rise to beliefs
among men that their heroes were not dead—could
not die—but lived like Arthur in happy valleys, or
invisibly walked the earth like St. John, or led armies
like St. James.
Such beliefs still mould for many
their conception of immortality; but they who confess
their eyes too weak to pierce the veil beyond the
grave, do not the less believe in the actual im
mortality of the life which a good man bequeaths to
the world. A right and true man may be defrauded
of his share in his own estate of life, but mankind
cannot be robbed of it.
For them he will go on
living, and his life will expand in influence as much
as if he were personally alive.
Nay, more !
The
dead will elevate the policy of the living President.
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He binds together nations that were estranged, and
sections which were at strife.
He is not dead, nor
does he sleep.
But there is a life that casts its shadow athwart theworld. Crouched in his ceil is the wretched criminal
who has caused all this agony. Perhaps in all history
■no two lives were ever brought into contact more-
representative severally of the best and the worst
forces that can control human life. The whole life of
that miserable murderer has been tracked, and it has
been found that he has for years been going through
the country like a sort of mad dog, leaving in many
regions traces of his disastrous march. Licentiousness,
fraud, falsehood, faithlessness to woman and to man,,
appear to have been the footprints of his career. And
during all this horrible career he has been possessed
[with the belief that he is a specially religious man.
i. Bor years, and up to the very hour of the murder,
Charles Guiteau was a lecturer against infidelity. HeI was celebrated for his prayers in the meetings of'
Mr. Moodey.
He went about the country defrauding
hotels at the very time that he was denouncing the
wickedness of the Hon. Bobert Ingersoll for dis
believing in Christianity.
Even since the murder,
and in his prison, Guiteau has continually read his
j Bible, is eager to talk theology with the officials,
I fiercely denounces infidelity, and argues for orthodoxy.
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These things I gather from reports that seem unbiassed
and uncontradicted.
I have no disposition to base
upon them any theory against Christians. Orthodox
people generally have as much horror of crime as any
•others. Nay, so long as Protestant orthodoxy was
able to unite morality and religion, and convince men
that crime was punished by a burning hell, it was able
to do something towards restraining the hell of human
passions. But gradually it has developed a theology
which necessarily and logically maintained that the
blood of Jesus could cleanse from all sin.
“ While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return.”
‘The majority of criminals have accepted the blood of
Jesus, after the law had clutched them, and believed
that they were ascending from the gallows to
Abraham’s bosom.
It is not often that a man of
Guiteau’s education is found so utterly demoralised
by a self-righteous theology.
And, although it is
logical for him to stand on his dogmas, and say “ I
the chief of sinners am, yet Jesus died for me,”—it
amounts to moral lunacy.
His combination of piety
and criminality make him a monster.
Goethe said,
“ Nature reveals her secrets in monsters.” And one
may hope that Christians will study this theological
assassin as a specimen showing what certain natures
may deduce from the dogma of salvation by faith
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without works.
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Happily that is not the tendency of
Christians, which is less and less characterised by
dogmatism, more and more by imitation of the
benevolence and charity of Christ.
But there is a
tendency of the old dogmas as they are deserted by
the best minds to gravitate downward among the least
educated and least restrained regions of society, and
to make their vulgar visionaries depend more on
abjectness before God than on rectitude before man
for security after death.
It may be that Guiteau will find no defender on his
trial.
No lawyer may be willing to take on himself
the stigma of having been the counsel of such a
creature.
Yet, I can imagine, a day may come of
calmer judgment when a plea in palliation might be
[ made even for him.
It would show that there was
j bequeathed him as his life estate a morbid temperament which exaggerated all the worst teachings of
morbid dogmas impressed on his mind in early life.
I He was taught that the supreme object of existence
was to save his own soul—that first lesson in selfish
ness taught to millions of children (which only the
j restraining grace of human nature prevents from
I making them soul-less!) He was taught that with
God human goodness availed nothing—neither justice,
| nor pity, nor gentleness, nor sympathy, nor unselfish| ness, nor purity of life.
All these amounted to just
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nothing in the work of bringing man to his highest
joy.
was taught that morality could save nobody,
and good works but filthy rags in the sight of God.
He was taught that death was a small affair, and to a
Christian great gain ‘ passage from an accursed world
to a blissful paradise.
The only fatally wicked thing
was to him unbelief.
These dogmas were given him
ns the guides of his life; they were not merely put on
his lips, as in most cases, but seem to have taken deep
root in him, insomuch that even in prison they were
his meditation day and night, if one may judge by
some reports of his interest in theology.
This is a perilous kind of teaching.
This is the
second time in the last few years that America has
been brought face to face with some of the possible
results of preserving the forms and phrases of
barbarian religion.
One was the case of the Massa
chusetts preacher Freeman, who believed himself
called, like Abraham, to sacrifice his beloved child.
He plunged a dagger in her breast.
The little victim
is in her grave; the father is in a lunatic asylum.
Probably, if the murderer of Garfield could be
thoroughly tried, he also would go to the asylum;
but, as it is, he will probably rest in a nameless and
execrated grave.
But what will theology have to say of this victim
of an enthusiasm for faith without the deeds of the
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Will the potent blood of Jesus in which he
fervently trusts carry him among the angels with the
blood of Garfield on his hands ?
Or are there limits
to the efficacy of Christ’s blood? That is a problem
we may leave to the theology which has raised it.
For us a more serious question is, What shall be the
result of that evil-doer’s career on earth ? What is
the life estate which he will part from and transmit ?
Has it a vitality, a permanence equal to that of the
President he has slam ? Will his evil career go on
widening into further and larger evil, as the good life
survives in expanding influences of good ? I believe
not.
I find nothing in history or experience to justify
that half-pessimistic view of nature which holds that,
evil in this world has a force co-extensive with that of
goodness. It must be admitted that evil now with
stands good in a passive, obstructive way; but it
must also be admitted that, since the reign of man
began, the good is selected and developed, the evil
steadily diminished and exterminated.
As from the
woods and fields of these islands the wolves and vipers
have nearly disappeared before human culture, so in
the world at large the wolfish and venomous passions
are steadily driven towards their strata of extinction.
The cumulative worth and excellence of the whole
: world form the life estate of the good, and at their
; death is consigned and preserved as a sacred trust to
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right and true men, who will not willingly let die one
benefit transmitted, or one example of excellence.
President Garfield was never so great and strong-
an influence in his life as he now is when borne to his
grave on the shore of Lake Erie.
When he was a
candidate for the highest office in America, partisan
charges were urged against him.
they clung to him.
After his election
Death has dissipated them all.
While he was on his death-bed every secret thing
concerning him was brought to light, and few records
in history have ever come forth from such a search
with such enhanced clearness and brilliancy.
Eact
after fact has been remembered and elicited; and it
has been shown that his life from childhood to death
is one whose heroism had never been recognised. It
never would have been recognised but for this fearful
tragedy, and but for the essential justice of mankind.
He fell a Republican President; he rises as an
exemplar
for the world.
However beneficial his
administration might have been had he lived, he could
nevei' have hoped to unite the sections of his country
as much as his death has united them ; and whatever
his foreign policy, he could never have hoped to bring
together England and America in such close alliance
of affection as they have been brought by sorrow and
sympathy at his grave. This last benefit, indeed, he
partly saw before death, and he was sustained by it
�through, the long agony.
And we may hope that
the wonderful serenity amid pain—the patient, un
complaining sufferance of the terrible eleven weeks—
were those of a mind visited by happy visions of his
country united, North and South—and of an AngloAmerican unity—secured and cemented by his blood
that at first seemed so idly shed.
Let all good men and women try to make that
vision a reality !
Let us remember that the life estate
of all who die falls as a bequest to those who are
living,—to be terminated if it be evil, to be enlarged
and improved if it be good.
The dead President has
TO bequeathed to each and all of us a benefit and a hope
which we little suspected was so near us.
tjI and tragical
His life
death have stirred the hearts of the
two greatest nations of the world,—representing nearly
a hundred millions of people standing in the vanguard
of civilisation,—nations which seventy years ago were
at war, and sixteen years ago
were quarrelling.
It has been the belief of great thinkers that it
would be a token of higher civilisation if these
two great nations could recover their ancient unity on
the broad basis of liberty,—if instead of an extinct
Anglo-Saxon race there could be formed an Anglo-
American race.
The pulses of sympathy and sorrow
every hour beating towards America are far grander
as an expression of civilisation than the mastered
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magnetism that is their messenger.
Old fables tell
of a magical music that built the walls of cities ;
but the ocean cable that vibrates with the love
of nation for nation is a harp-string of earth’s
heart whose music builds ideal civilisation.
This
day the fifty millions of that stricken land behold
on the darkness a star of brightness ; it is a wreath of
flowers laid by the Queen upon the President’s bier,
fragrant with the sympathy and bedewed with the
tears of her people.
Those flowers must live.
It is
for all good men and women to cherish them that they
may never fade.
Their fragrance is more potent than
armies and navies. They are blossoms of a springtide
of civilisation such as our poor blood-stained earth has
vainly sighed foi' through the centuries.
Ah! I know that they will never fade; they will
be cherished in the hearts of children’s children, and
they will still expand in the happy sunshine when all
the battle-flags that ever floated between America and
England are furled and forgotten.
That is General Garfield’s bequest to you and me,—
to help keep fresh those flowers that mean the hopes
of nations. He bequeathes us also the story of his
life.
To every Anglo-American child shall be told the
brave story of how a poor western lad toiled and
studied, and nourished his mind and heart with pure
and patriotic aims, until he rose to greatness and
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hands that had smitten, the hearts that had been
estranged, and bequeathed to humanity the grandest
estate it could have, a heart-union of the two nations
which mainly hold the destinies of the world and
must mould the future of mankind.
So much could one poor lad achieve.
young Englishmen.
Think of it,
Do not suppose that such ascent
and success is peculiarly American. It was English
long centuries before it was American. The German,
Goethe, said to a youth who proposed going to seek
his fortune in America, “Your America is here or
nowhere.”
The science of England and its welfare
are largely forwarded by men who were once poor
lads.
Before enterprise and endeavour, barriers will
yield here as elsewhere.
Your aim is not title or
ostentation; it is to become fully possessed of your
life estate, to make the most and best of all your
powers for the good of mankind, so that no mischance,
no blow of fate, can destroy your work, but it shall
rise on grandly over your grave as by the labours of
your life.
�SOUTH _PLACE_ CHAPEL.
WORKS TO BE OBTAINED IN THE LIBRARY.
BY M. D. CONWAY, M.A.
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Report of the Conference of Liberal Thinkers 1878,1
�LAUREATE DESPAIR
A DISCOURSE GIVEN AT
SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL
DECEMBER nth 1S81.
BY
Moncure D. Conway, M.A.
LONDON
II,
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�LAUREATE DESPAIR.
1T ET me say at once that I am glad the Poet Laureate
J—4 has written the poem called “ Despair/’ which I
((propose to criticise. It is a cry out of the heart of an
1 earnest man; it utters the sorrow with which many
^people in our time see their old dreams fading, and no
Anew ones rising in their place; and it reminds free■fthinkers that theirs is a heavy responsibility and duty.
IThey have to meet and respond to that need and pain
•|which thousands feel wrhere one can give it expression.
AMen of science and philosophers do not always under
stand this. The most eminent of them are pursuing
©deals far more beautiful to them than those that have set.
iThey have special knowledge, or special aims, which
Ikindle into pillars of fire before their enthusiasm, and can
Jnot see how to those of other studies and pursuits their
rfguiding splendour is a pillar of smoke rising from a fair
■world slowly consumed. The 'man of science, hourly
^occupied with discoveries which blaze upon him, star by
Mar, till his reason is as a vault sown with eternal lights,
<eels that he is in the presence of conceptions beside
Which the visions of Dante and Milton are frescoes of a
iime-darkened dome. The enthusiast of Humanity holds
�( 4 )
in his eye a latter-day glory of which history is the pro
phecy and developed man the fulfilment. Such enthu
siasms imply continual studies, occupations, duties, which,
leave little room for attention to the shadows these lights;
cast upon the old world of dreams—each shadow a dogma
or its phantom. Nevertheless, that world of dreams,
shades, phantoms, is still real to many. It is real not
only to the ignorant, whom it terrifies, and to the selfish,
whose power rests on it, but to spiritual invalids, whoneed sympathy. And, beyond this reality, the phantasmson which religion and society wereflfounded possess a
quasi-reality even for robust minds. You mav recall the
saying of Madame de Stael, that “ she did not believe in.
ghosts, but was afraid of them.” After dogmas are dead
their ghosts walk the earth ; and even some who nolonger believe in the ghosts are still afraid of them.
When their intellects are no longer haunted their nerves;
are.
There are others, again, for whose vision or nerves the
pleasant dogmas alone survive in this attenuated, ghostly
form. They no longer believe in the ghosts, but still love
them. Of this class is the literary artist. To the pictorial
artist a ruin is more picturesque than the most comfort
able dwelling. ’Tis said of an eminent art-critic that,
being invited to visit America, he replied that he could
not think of visiting a country where’there were no ruins..
Alfred Tennyson is the consummate artist in poetry. We
all know with what tender sentiment Tennyson has.
�a
(
5
)
painted the scenery of Arthur’s time, with what felicity
described many other reliques of human antiquity.
“ His eye will not look upon a bad colour.” He sees
the mouldering ruins in their picturesque aspects, leaving
out of sight the noxious weeds and vermin that infest
them. Where these loathsome things appear no man
more recoils from them. If the White Ladies of Super
stition haunt them, these he admires ; but he impales the
gnomes and vampyres.
In this, his latest poem, “ Despair,” he shows a childlike
simplicity of desire to retain all the pleasant and reject all
the unpleasant consequences of the same principles. His
�( 6
)
Till you flung us back on ourselves, and the human heart, and.
the Age.
But pity—that Pagan held it a vice—was in her and in me,
Helpless, taking the place of the pitying God that should be I
Pity for all that aches in the grasp of an idiot power,
And pity for our own selves on an earth that bore not a
flower.
Again he says :
Were there a God, as you say,
His Love would have power over hell till it utterly vanish’d
away.
Ah, yet—I have had some glimmer at times, in my gloomiest
woe,
Of a God behind all—after all—the Great God, for aught that
I know :
But the God of Love and of Hell together — they cannot ibe
Tr ?h(,U?ht ■
cwM
It there be such a God, may the Great God curse him and
bring him to nought!
This is what the Poet Laureate thinks of the God of every
creed in Christendom, for every creed maintains an
eternal hell.
But the agnostic, the know-nothing sceptic, is summoned
to bear his share in this tragedy of hopelessness and
suicide, fl he poet does not suggest that disbelief in a
future life or in a Deity would alone lead to suicide. In
his imaginary case unbelief is only a factor. The man
and wife were in terrible trouble. One of their two sons
had died ; the eldest had fled after committing forgery on
his own father, bringing him to ruin. It is under such
fearful circumstances that, without faith or hope, they sink
into despair. The man says :
Why should we bear with an hour of torture, a moment of
pain,
If every man die for ever, if all his griefs are in vain,
�And the homeless planet at length will be wheeled thro’ thesilence of space,
Motherless evermore of an ever-vanishing race ?
*
*
*
*
*
*
For these are the new dark ages, you see, of the popular press,
When the bat comes out of his cave, and the owls are
whooping at noon,
And Doubt is the lord of this dunghill, and crows to the sun
and moon,
Till the Sun and Moon of our science are both of them turned
to blood,
And Hope will have broken her heart, running after a shadow
of good.
It is a striking fact, in our sceptical age, that such
lamentations as these are not heard from among the poor
and the drudges of society. They who are asking whether
life be worth living without the old faith in immortality,
and they who say it is not, are persons of position and
wealth. Any one who has taken the pains to observe the
crowds of working people who attend the lectures of
secularists, or to read their journals, will know they are
cheery enough. We never hear any of them bemoaning
the vanished faith. In truth the more important fact is
not that the belief in immortality is gone, or the belief in
Deity, but that belief in a desirable immortality and a
desirable Deity has gone out of the hearts of many. In
one of his humourous pieces Lucian, describing his ima
ginary journey through Hades, says he could recognise
those who had been kings or rich people on earth by theii
loud lamentations. They had parted with so much.
Those who on earth had been poor and wretched were
quiet enough. "We may observe similai phenomena in
�( 8
)
this psychological Hades, or realm of the Unseen and
Unknown, into which modern thought has entered. Those
to whom God has allotted palaces, plenty, culture, beauty,
can eas ly believe Him a God of Love ,• and it were to
them heaven enough to wake from the grave to a continu
ance of the same. But they who have known hunger,
cold, drudgery, ignorance, have no such reason to say
God is Love. Such may naturally say, “ If we have
waked up in this world in dens of misery, why, under the
same providence, may we not wake up to a future of
misery ?” The old creeds met that difficulty. They
showed a miraculous revelation on the subject, by which
God had established an insurance against future misery,
an assurance of future luxury. It was all to be super
natural. By miraculous might poverty was to be changed
to wealth, the hovel to a palace, rags to fine raiment,
ignorance to knowledge, folly to wisdom, and scarlet sin
to snow-pure virtue. Without such tremendous trans
formations the masses of the miserable could have no
interest in immortality. But gradually the comfortable
scholarship and theology of our time, in trying to prove a
God of nature, have done away with the God of super
nature. Their deity of design is loaded with all the bad
designs under which men suffer. Fifty years ago Carlyle
groaned because he could not believe in a Devil any more.
Philosophy had reasoned a Devil out of existence. The
result was to make the remaining power responsible for
all the evils in the world, and ultimately bling him into
�1
w
( 9 X
a ioubt and disgrace too. Dismssing the Devil out of faith
iiias not dismissed evil, the mad work of earthquake, hurri
cane and fire. As we think of the shores with their wrecks,
^is we think of those people in Vienna gathered around the
iiharre .1 remains of their families and friends, must we not
Sisk if this is providential work what would be diabolical
jivork ? Reason says to Theology, “ At least you can be
iKilent, and not malign the spirit of good within us by
Asking us to call that without good which we know to be
lad ! ”
. I Similarly theologians .in trying to rationalise the idea of
Immortality have naturalised it. They have tacked it on
to evolution. But what the miserable suffer by is evolu4ion : unless they can be assured of a supernatural change,
jjf a heaven, they do not want to be evolved any more.
Only a miraculous revelation could promise them that
;.jniraculous heaven ; and the. only alleged revelation is
Rejected by the culture and the charity of our age. It is
[fcenied by Culture, because it reveals some impossibilities ;
my Charity, because it reveals a God capable of torturing
leople more than they are tortured here. What are eight
hundred people burned swiftly in a theatre compared to
millions burning in hell for ages, if not for ever, as Revela
tion declares ? Our Poet Laureate is a man of both
Culture and charity ; he cannot sing of a revelation which
Includes Hell, however he may cling to hopes that came
Ly the sanae revelation, or mourn at thought of pai ting
from a world so fair.
�(
10
)
Candour compels us to admit that there is as yet no
certainty of a future life for the individual consciousness.
The surviving seed of the human organism if it exist has
not been discovered. There is nothing unnatural in the
theory. It would not be more miraculous to find our
selves in another world than to find ourselves in this. If
two atoms of the primeval nebula, thrown together, had
been for one instant capable of speculation, how little
could they have imagined a company of men and women
gathered to meditate on life and eternity 1 All this is
very marvellous if we conceive it contemplated from a
point of non-existence. For all we know there are more
marvels beyond.
But suppose there are none ; suppose death be the end
of us; is there any reason for despair ? Even for the
man and woman on whom life had brought dire
calamities, was there any reason for suicide ? Just the
reverse, I should say. Belief that this life was all were
reason for making the most of it. Belief that their ruin
would not be repaired hereafter were reason for trying to
repair it here, as well as they could. Has Tennyson
evolved his man and woman out of his inner con
sciousness ? It is doubtful if in the annals of freethought
such a case can be pointed out; though many instances
may be shown where believers in a future world slew
themselves to get there. Suicide was a mania in some
old convents until the church fixed its ‘ canon ’gainst self
slaughter.’
�?! ' • However, it may be that instances of the kind Tennyson
& -describes may occur. We are but on the threshold of the
is age when men are to live and work without certainty
S of future rewards and payments. The doubts now in the
t .head must presently reach the heart, then influence the
II hand ; if people have built their houses on the sand of
K mythology, and they fall, it may be that some will not
t have the heart to begin new buildings on the rock.
F-: What then ? It will be only the continuation of the old
1 law—survival of the fittest. Suicides at least do not live
t to increase their race. Only those tend to prevail in
nature who can 'adapt themselves to the conditions ofnature. If nature has arrived at a period of culture when
•supernaturalism passes out of the human faith, then they
"who sink into despair or death, on that account, show
themselves no longer adapted to nature. There will be a
survival of those more adapted to the new ideas ; who
prefer them ; who do not aspire to live for ever, but have
.a heart for any fate, and a religion whose forces and joys
are concentrated in the life that now is. If natuie and
humanity need such a race for their furtherance, such a
race will be produced ; and they will read poems like
this “ Despair,” with a curiosity mixed with compassion,
wondering how their ancestors could have been troubled,
about such a matter.
. Something like this has occurred in the past in several
id instances.
While Christians find fullest expression of
[j their joyful emotions in the psalmody and prophecy of the
�(
I2
)
Hebrews they often forget that those glowing hymns say
no word about a future life. There is no clear affirmation
of immortality in the Old Testament, but much to the
contrary.
Buddhism also, which has awakened the
enthusiasm of a third of a human race, arose as a protest
against theism and immortality. In such instances there
would appear to have been reactions against previous,
theologies, which had so absorbed mankind in metaphysics
and' speculations about the future as to belittle this life and
cause neglect of this world. Despised and degraded nature
avenged this wrong by making asceticism its own
destruction, and worldliness a source of strength and
*
survival.
Some such Nemesis seems to be following
the extreme other-worldliness which, for so many Christian
centuries, has bestowed the fruits of human toil upon
supposed supernatural interests. This earthward swing of
the slow pendulum of faith is not likely to be arrested
until religion has been thoroughly humanised. As a
brave clergyman (Rev. Harry Jones) warned the Church
Congress at York, the Church will never conquer
Secularism, except by doing more for mankind than
Secularism does.
■ '
We must almost remember that no oscillations of the
pendulum between theology and humanity, no reactions,
determine the question. As Old Testament Secularism
* As it is said in Ecclesiasticus: “ He has also set worldli
ness in their heart, which man cannot understand the works
that God does, from beginning to end.”—Dr. Kalisch’s
Translation.
�(
13
)
followed Egyptian Mysticism, Talmudic visions of heaven
} succeeded. Every ebb alternates with a flow in the tides
I of human feeling; and these tides are the generations which
I nature successively creates to fufil successive conditions,
and to find their joy in such fufilment, whatever be the
despair of the ebbing at faith of the flowing tide.
: But, no doubt, these rising and falling ages of speculation
| and religion will show calmer and happiei' phenomena in
the future than in the past. There are traces in the earth
i of tremendous operations in the past, which geology
I was unable to account for by any forces now acting,
until Astronomy discovered that the Moon had been
[ steadily receding from the earth, its mother. The moon
i is now 240,000 miles away, but is proved to have bien
t once only 40,000 miles distant. At that period the tides
were to the tides of our time as 216 to 1. This country
1 and many others must then have been flooded with every
tide, and the enormous geologic results are now under
stood. There would appear to be some correspindence in
I all this with mental and moral phenomena. In religious
! geology also there are traces of convulsions and huge
formations which it has been difficult to account for,—
mighty religious wars, massacres, whole races committing
I slow suicide for the sake of their Gods. Comparative
I studies now show that the lunar theology was much nearer
J to mankind then than now, and the tides more furious.
« The extraneous influence is withdrawing more and more.
] Where theologians used to burn each other they now fight
j combats with pens. Where heretics were massacred they
1
�(
14 )
are now only visited with dislike. Instead of crusades,,
with Richard and Saladin, we have young poets singingon the crest of a sparkling tide, and their elder, from
refluent waves, murmuring rhythmic Despair. There isa vast difference between the emotions awakened
by belief in a deity near at hand, pressing down upon the
life, and those awakened by a hypothetical deity of
philosophy or ethics. When men attributed their every
hourly hap, good or bad, to the personal favour or to the
anger of their deity, their feeling at any supposed affront
to their deity, mingled with selfishness and terror, rose to
a pitch very different from any now known when few
men refer any event to supernatural intervention. Yet
do the great movements of the universe go on, the cycles
and the periods fufil themselves, the planets roll on new
orbits with changed revolutions; and, whatever be the
corresponding changes in human opinion, they cannot alter
the eternal fact.
If immortality be the law of the universe, it will be
reached by believers and disbelievers alike. But, could
the world be made absolutely certain of it beforehand, by
the only means of certainty—scientific proof—what were
the advantage ? It would no longer be a miraculous thing
promising all a leap from earthly sorrow to heavenly
bliss, but merely a law of nature—mere continuance—the
millions rising from their graves to go on with existence,
just as they will rise from their beds to-morrow. There
would be no further note of despair from the Laureates ;
but how would it be with the general world ? One of the
�most powerful poems of our time has been written by a
French lady, Louise Ackermann. It is entitled “Les
Malheueux”—the Unhappy. The last day has come ; the
trumpet has sounded. A great angel descends ; uncovers
all the graves of the dead, and bids them come forth for
everlasting life. Some eagerly come forth, but a large
number refuse. To the divine command that they shall
emerge, their voice is heard in one utterance. They tell
him they have had enough of life in His creation ; they
have passed through thorns, and over flinty paths—from
agony to agony. To such an existence He called them—
they suffered it; and now they will forgive Him only if
He will let them rest, and forget that they have lived.
Such is the despair with which one half of the world,
might answer the joy of the other should a mere natural
immortality be proved.
A great deal of the poetry of the world has invested
with glory man’s visions of heaven and heavenly beings.
The very greatest poets have invested nature and theearth with glory, and set the pulses of the human heart
to music. This has been the greatness of Homer, Shake
speare, Goethe. But the majority have given the world
visions of heaven, divine dramas, and hymns of immor
tality ; and it is these that have been taught to earth’s
millions in their infancy. These happy hymns have for
ages soothed sorrowing hearts, and helped the masses of
mankind to bear the burthens of life—this not only in
Christendom, but in so-called Pagan lands and ages.These have been as the songs of Israfel in Eastern faith.
�(
16 )
They said a sweet singer among the angels left heaven to
go forth over the suffering world and soothe mortals with
his heavenly lyre and his hymns, until all were able to
Tear the griefs of life because of the joys beyond,
rehearsed by Israfel. But once—while this angel was
.singing with his celestial seven-stringed lyre—one string
of it snapped. No one could be found to mend the string
-or supply its place; and, every time Israfel tried to make
music, it was all jangling discords, through that broken
string. So Israfel took his flight, and never returned to
the world. The tale sounds like a foreboding of what has
in these last days befallen the sacred poetry which so long
made the world forget its griefs. The lyre of Israfel is
the human heart, and the snapped string is its faith in a
supernatural heaven. It has been snapped by the
development of nature ; it therefore cannot be restored
unless by a further development: and so Sacred Poetry
has taken its flight from the world—its last great song
being of a Paradise Lost. In other words, the hope of
immortality has ceased to have power to soothe and
uplift those who most needed it, because the recognized
reign of law forbids belief that such life—should it come
—would be very different from the life that uow is.
*
But there is another story of a broken string, with a
■different ending. It comes from Greece (Browning
has finely told it in The Two Poets of Croisic), the land
of Art and of the Beauty that adorns the earth. It is of
a bard who came with his lyre to sing for a prize. He
-came with other competitors before the solemn judges.
�The others had all sung their poems ; now came our youth,
with his. His theme rose high and higher, till at length
he came to the great theme of his song—Love. Just then
he felt beneath his finger that one string of his lyre had
snapt, a string that presently must do its part, or else his
song be put to shame. On, on, his strain went, as if to
its death ; but just as he drew near his note’ of Despair,
lo, a cricket chirped loud, chimed in with just that needed
note ! Saved, he went on, and ever as he returned to this
broken string the cricket duly made good the snapt string,
and thus the judges missed no note of the music, which
won the crown. On the poet’s statue was carved the
cricket which contributed from the lowly hearth the
needed note in that hymn of Love, when the old string
had broken. That tale too, I doubt not, came out of that
truest of all poets, the human heart. For the heart of our
race is aged in such experiences as those which elicit
rhymes of Despair. It has seen beautiful symbols fade in
myriads ; symbols of heavens innumerable, every one
clung to by suffering Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, as
much as any Christian clings to their successors. It has
seen troops of bright gods and goddesses perish, nymphs
and fairies leaving wood and vale desolate ; and yet, just
as its gladdest heart-string has snapt, its faith in heaven
given way, some cheery note from the earth has come to
remind it of the love near at hand, of the divine joy van
ished from its ancient heavens only to be revealed at the
hearth.
A cricket-chirp ! That is all. While our great Laureate
�(
i8
)
is employing his art to sing of despair, and other poets
aspire to ambitious themes, the notes are as yet but few
and humble, which cheer man with a trust in the love that
is near him. But there are such notes making up for the
•creed’s snapt string. Nor are they near only the happy.
The cricket sings from many an overshadowed hearth. It
tells the heart to be brave, and never count life lost so
long as courage remain. It bids man cease thinking so
much about himself—whether he be likely to die next year,
or die for ever—and go fall in love with something, an
out-self; to dispel morbid meditations. It warns us not to
worry over what may never happen, or, if it happen, may
be for the best, but turn to make what paradise we can on
•earth ; nor admit into it the destroyer of every paradise,
■care about the morrow, or about the far future. All these
spiritual despairs are diseases of the imagination. In a
sense, it is hereditary disease. For many generations our
ancestors employed their imaginations for little else than
to realise the charnal-house and picture happiness or
horrors beyond it. So their children have inherited a
morbid tendency of imagination, whereby they may turn
from the happiness they have and make themselves
miserable with dreams about its vanishing. Such work of
the imagination is illegitimate. Imagination is the
brightest angel of the head, as Love is of the heart; they
are twin angels and their office is to make life rich and
beautiful. And they can so enrich and adorn life, though
passed in a hovel, though amid pain, though destined to
end for ever, provided they be not dismissed from their
�(
W )
d post of present duty and sent wandering through clouds
c# to find love’s objects, or digging into graves to find life’s
ul fountain. I love and admire our Laureate for his great
heart and his beautiful art, but will not follow his muse,
nJ singing of Despaii, except with a hope that it is his way
i of writing its epitaph. I will follow the happy minstrel.
That poet who shows life to be environed with beauty,
makes deserts blossom in his song, whose poem is a
fountain of joy for all the living, bringing forgetfulness
to pain, and a sweet lullaby for the dying—that shall be
J my poet. And if, among the minstrels of our time, such
sihappy ones connot be found, because some string of faith
.for heart is snapped, then let us listen to the cheery
if cricket, to the voices of children, to the gentle words of
..S affection, to the unbroken song of the merry hearts in
..1 nature that remember only its loveliness. We will listen
eg to these until the new Poetry shall arise—as arise it will
I-with fresh songs, to bid all spirits rejoice in that which
) the old brought despair. That is the task of Poetry
ad Art. Every new thing destroying the old brings
espair; none brought more than Christianity—shatterlg the fair gods, and Protestantism—over whose havoc of
rayers and pieties Luther’s poor wife wept; but Poetry
id Art did their work, and none now long for restoration
f Aphrodite or Madonna. So also shall our age of
:ience find its poets and artists, and our children shall no
ore long for a buried faith than we for the holy dolls of
•umbled altars, whose power to charm has fled.
�SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL
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Demonology and Devil-lore............................
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Thomas Carlyle
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The Sacred Anthology : A Book of Ethnical Scriptures
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Republican Superstitions
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Human Sacrifices in England
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Intellectual Suicide.........................................
The First Love Again
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Entering Society
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...
0 2
...
0 2
...
0 2
0 2
..
0 2
...
0 2
...
0 2
...
0 2
... .02
BY Mr. FREDERIC
“ Pantheism and Cosmic Emotion ”...
...
0 2
..
0 2
HARRISON
BY Dr. ANDREW WILSON.
The Religious Aspects of Health ................
BY A J. ELLIS, B.A., F.R.S., &c.,
Salvation
......................................................
Truth...................................................................
Speculation......................................................
Duty...................................................................
The Dyer’s Hand
.........................................
Comte’s Religion of Humanity
................
...
...
...
...
...
...
BY W. C. COUPLAND, M.A.
...
The Conduct of Life ...
Hymns and Anthems
............................
&C.
...
...
2
2
2
2
2
4
...
...
...
0
0
0
0
0
0
...
0 2
Is., 2s., 3s-
REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE OF LIBERAL THINKERS,
1878
...............................................................................
1 0
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The life and death of Garfield: a discourse before the South Place Religious Society, September 25 1881
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907 [1832-1907]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 15 cm.
Series title: South Place Discourses
Notes: Printed by Frederic G. Hickson & Co., London. List of works to be obtained in the Lending Library of South Place Chapel at end of pamphlet. Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 2.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[South Place Religious Society]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1881]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
T341
G4887
G3351
Subject
The topic of the resource
James A. Garfield
Sermons
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The life and death of Garfield: a discourse before the South Place Religious Society, September 25 1881), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Assassination
Conway Hall Ethical Society
James Abram Garfield
Morris Tracts
Sermons
South Place Chapel
-
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PDF Text
Text
South Place Chapel, Finsbury,
June, 1884..
The Committee of South Place Religious Society have with much
regret to announce to the Members the approaching resignation by Mr. CONWAY
of his office as Minister of this Congregation.
The Committee have deemed it their duty to immediately make the
Members acquainted with Mr. CONWAY’S decision, and the reasons for it;
which they have also felt would be much better conveyed in Mr. Conway’s
own words than in any of their own selection.
They therefore send to each
Member a copy of Mr. Conway’s letter, which they commend to the most
sympathetic consideration.
It need only be added that a Special Meeting of the Society will be
■summoned in due time to consider how Mr. Conway’s ajHace can be supphmt? *
with the best prospect of carrying on successfully the wrork to which he has
for so many years devoted himself.
[COPY
OF
LETTER.]
London, May <yth, 1884.
To the Committee of the South Place Religious Society.
My Dear Friends,
After much anxious thought, I have concluded to send you my resignation
of the office I hold as Minister of the South Place Religious Society.
The resignation
is hereby made, to take effect at the close of the present year, 1884.
I do not know
that I should have done this so soon had not a paragraph appeared, unfortunately, in
the press announcing my intention of returning to reside in America.
How that
paragraph reached the public I do not know, but suppose that some private conversation
with a friend or relative in America must have passed from one to another until it
fell on the ear of the New York paper which first gave it to the world.
�However, the announcement—though I could have wished it first made through
yourselves—was only premature.
had already come
considerations of a
When I asked for the appointment of a colleague it
before me as a probability, though I then hoped not so near, that
personal nature would draw me back to my native land.
My wife
and I have both and equally endeavoured to prolong our stay in England, for the
sake of our work
in South Place, but have now made up our minds that we cannot
remain in Europe
longer than next year, if so long.
If you should desire me to speak
again at South Place in the earlier part of next year, and I am able to do so, my
present resignation will not prevent it.
Meanwhile, after August, the Society will again
have the opportunity of listening to my colleague, to whom I have been looking, and
still look, to commend himself to you as one able to carry on the work which I
must leave.
It is unnecessary that I should say more concerning the reasons that have
impelled me to this decision, than that they are of a purely private and domestic
character, and include no dissatisfaction with South Place or with the country in which
I have so long and happily resided.
My residence in England was neve^ pleasanter,
-aryl mv relations with^^outh Place. _ so:**fer as I. Anow.
happier-^Ahan
present. The giving up of South Place will mean Blr me giving up the ministry
altogether.
I have no intention of ever again taking charge of a congregation.
It
seems a kind of death to leave the work to which twenty-one years, representing the
heart of one’s life, have been devoted; and as the time of my departure draws near
I trust it may be attended with kindly sentiments, and that I may have the con
solation of passing away amid peace and friendship.
Faithfully yours,
MONCURE D. CONWAY.
�i ;i»-JXt -
’.‘intra ’sali
, 0:
K,‘J
-'
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
[Notice, June 1884, announcing Mr. Conway's resignation as Minister and copy of Conway's letter]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
South Place Religious Society
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: [2] p. on folded sheet.
Notes: Conway's letter of resignation date May 9th 1884. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1884
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5583
Subject
The topic of the resource
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work ([Notice, June 1884, announcing Mr. Conway's resignation as Minister and copy of Conway's letter]), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Conway Tracts
Moncure Conway
South Place Religious Society
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7cae06ef10f7c811792109ab1df1c095
PDF Text
Text
SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL AND INSTITUTE.
SOIREES,
1877.
The Soiree Committee beg to infoi'm the Members tand
Friends of this Society that the next series of Soirees will be held
on the First Monday in February, March and April respectively.
The Programme for February 5th will include Selections for
Pianoforte and Stringed Instruments, Songs, &c.
The objects of interest for,/the evening will be Old. Books,
Tapestry and Needlework.
. In March, Statuettes, Coins, Photographs,
exhibited, and in April, Flowers.
be
Tickets of Admission for the Serie^ price One Shilling and
Sixpence (including Refreshment),, may be obtained in the
Library, or of the Soiree Committee.*
It is hoped that all Seatholders will suppcBf the Soirees, in
order that they may continue to be successful in promoting social
intercourse among the Members of the Congregation and their
Friends.
The balance in hand, afte^feaying working expe%Hs| will be
handed over as heretofore to the Treasurer.
By order of the Committee,
(Tcorrie b.
grant,
Hon. SseT)
January 22nd, 1877.
8, Serjeants’ Ink, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
South Place Chapel and Institute [soiree programme, 1877]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
South Place Religious Society
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 1 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1877]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5713
Subject
The topic of the resource
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (South Place Chapel and Institute [soiree programme, 1877]), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Conway Tracts
South Place Chapel
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3226ed6574edefa95b3fc08ca96b6c1a
PDF Text
Text
Digitisation
Operational Manual
Conway Hall
A How-To Guide to Digitisation
Samantha Callaghan
23 September 2016
�Digitisation Operational Manual
A how-to guide to digitise at the Humanist Library and Archives. 1
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3
The Planning Process .............................................................................................................................. 3
Scoping ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Stakeholder/Audience Consultation ................................................................................................... 5
Item Description and Metadata .......................................................................................................... 6
Scanning .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Expected Outputs................................................................................................................................ 7
Launch ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Omeka ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Settings Panel Configuration............................................................................................................... 9
Plugins ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Appearance ................................................................................................................................... 11
Users ............................................................................................................................................. 14
Settings.......................................................................................................................................... 15
Administration Menu ........................................................................................................................ 17
Dashboard ..................................................................................................................................... 18
Item Types ..................................................................................................................................... 18
Tags ............................................................................................................................................... 19
LC Suggest ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Simple Pages ................................................................................................................................. 20
Simple Vocab................................................................................................................................. 21
CSV Import .................................................................................................................................... 22
Ingest Process ................................................................................................................................... 22
Collection Creation........................................................................................................................ 23
Add Items ...................................................................................................................................... 24
Exhibit Creation............................................................................................................................. 28
1
Using the Architecture & Place project as a template.
1
�Reflection .............................................................................................................................................. 32
Documentation ................................................................................................................................. 32
Evaluation ......................................................................................................................................... 32
User - Direct .................................................................................................................................. 32
User - Indirect ............................................................................................................................... 32
Internal .......................................................................................................................................... 33
End of Project Report ........................................................................................................................ 33
Final Notes ............................................................................................................................................ 34
Glossary ................................................................................................................................................. 35
2
�Introduction
This operational manual documents the entire process at the Humanist Library and Archives to
digitise a collection from project planning, through platform configuration, content ingest and finally
to the reflection steps. This process is outlined in the figure below (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Digitisation Process
The Planning Process
There are a number of steps that take place during the planning stage. How many are included or
how extensive they might be is driven by the nature of the project. The Architecture and Place
digitisation project was a pilot project and so was not as extensively planned as a larger or more
3
�complex project might be. A pilot allows for the development of institutional knowledge which can
be documented to guide future projects; a too strict planning process does not allow for the agility
to respond to unexpected or not yet fully understood issues encountered throughout the duration of
the pilot.
From the outset it is important to develop and set timelines for the project so that you can be clear
when each step, including those dependent on previous steps, are expected to be
started/completed. Frequent reviewing of the timeline can help prioritisation of tasks to ensure that
the project is completed in a timely fashion.
In addition, for a larger or more complex project, you can develop a digitisation plan to cover more
thoroughly the steps outlined in the project timeline. If undertaking stakeholder consultation then a
plan can be a very useful document to circulate for feedback; a plan may even be developed to offer
different paths to digitisation dependant on the feedback on the needs of existing and potential
users. This is covered more thoroughly below.
Other steps included in the planning process include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Collection scoping;
Stakeholder and audience consultation;
Item description and metadata;
Scanning vendor selection;
Platform scoping 2;
Expected outputs – public and administrative; and,
Project launch, resources and promotion.
Scoping
Digitisation projects are predominantly dependent on the content of your institution's collections;
unless you are working with other GLAM 3 sector partners on a joint project. Therefore it is critical to
develop a thorough understanding of the collections you hold.
Scoping a possible digitisation project requires not just an understanding of your collections but also:
•
•
•
•
•
the themes you may want to develop;
whether you'll be undertaking consultation;
your budget;
the timeframe for project development (copyright may be an important factor here); and,
how your possible project aligns to relevant organisational strategies and plans e.g. Conway
Hall Centenary Strategy and the learning strategy and its outlined aims.
This last point is to ensure that the digitised material is integrated into the learning that is offered by
Conway Hall. This is to minimise the risk of the digitisation project becoming 'siloed' and therefore
unsustainable in the long term.
2
This need only be undertaken once at the beginning of your digitisation programme unless you are
undertaking a very different type of digitisation from projects you previously completed.
3
Galleries, libraries, archives and museums
4
�During scoping you will develop a scoping document to outline possible projects discovered in an
initial investigation of the collection/s. When a decision is made for a particular theme or collection
to be developed into a digitisation project then you can create a selection criteria document to assist
in selection as well as a scoping spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet you can capture details of the
selected items for the project identified after an in-depth look for material. Versions of this
spreadsheet may be shared with scanning vendors to get quotes, to capture condition reporting
information or developed into copyright due diligence tracking documents.
It is important to recognise that the shape of your project may change during the course of its
development. For example, your project might grow after discovering suitable items that are not yet
catalogued or there might be material that you wish to include that you are unable to due to being
denied copyright permission. With this in mind it may be recommended that you set aside some of
your budget for any unexpected scanning needs and/or look for projects that are not as complicated
regarding copyright.
Stakeholder/Audience Consultation
Architecture and Place was a pilot project; decisions around what would be appropriate as a pilot
project were made from scoping possible projects, looking at which had the broadest appeal and
range of media to help determine a platform that could meet the widest needs of Conway Hall.
It is not uncommon, such as with the above pilot project, to derive the shape of digitisation projects
from the collections held. However, it can be of great benefit to undertake consultation with
stakeholders (such as collection generators) and existing and potential audiences to drive the project
shape and outputs, which might include volunteer and community engagement, learning or other
opportunities.
The choice of whether to undertake consultation is institution and collection dependent. If you are
looking for external funding then consultation can be a factor in a successful funding bid. If choosing
to undertake consultation then you will need to:
1. Identify stakeholders/audiences
a. If you are looking to consult the general public then a survey is useful. But how will
you administer it? At the launch of Architecture and Place at the Open House
London Festival 2016 we used print versions of a survey to canvass public opinion as
to which material by topic they would be interested in seeing digitised. This survey is
also available on the digitisation platform website.
b. If specific audiences or stakeholders are of interest then creating focus groups can
be an especially useful way to engage with these communities and identify their
information needs.
2. Identify potential partners and their audiences if you are looking to undertake a joint
project.
3. Undertake the consultation process.
4. Analyse the results.
Consultation may be risky if you're looking for confirmation of a digitisation choice rather than being
open to the feedback you will receive. It is also not recommended to undertake consultation if there
5
�is little to no flexibility in the shape of your proposed project. Consultation should only be
undertaken if you are willing to allow the feedback received to shape the project. 4
Despite the risks, consultation can be a worthwhile exercise to encourage community engagement
early on in a project and also provide opportunities for relationship building.
Item Description and Metadata
Firstly, all items being considered for digitisation should already have been catalogued. If a small
number have not been catalogued or fully described then the project can still go ahead but if a large
number of items to be digitised have not been catalogued or fully described consider putting off the
project until cataloguing has been undertaken. A lack of description can be a sizeable threat to any
timelines you set for the digitisation project and so it is not advisable to go ahead until description is
complete. 5
Secondly, consider your metadata standard. The standard used by the Humanist Library and Archives
is Dublin Core (DC) 6. This is because it is the standard supported by the Omeka platform. Not all of
the information included in an item's description that appears on the library catalogue and/or in the
archival finding aids, will be used on Omeka; only some descriptive and administrative metadata 7 is
captured, partially due to the 'flat' nature of DC itself. As it is 'flat' it is difficult to capture structural
metadata and only a little easier to capture certain types of administrative metadata. Some of this
metadata is captured elsewhere in other documents or encoded within the digital items themselves.
In some use cases the ‘Source’ field has been used to capture administrative metadata but there is
little consistent usage of this field across all DC collections and so it is not currently used in this
fashion at the Humanist Library and Archives. If, in the future, a decision is made to change this then
retrospective cataloguing may be undertaken as required.
Look to the metadata guide 8 for a profile of how DC is used by the Humanist Library and Archives.
Scanning
Scanning is an essential component of the majority of digitisation process and is often a stage that is
critical to meeting deadlines. It is not uncommon to encounter issues during this stage. It can be
broken down as follows:
1. Create item spreadsheet which can be developed from the scoping spreadsheet; this will be
sent to the scanning vendor to assist them
4
An example of consultation undertaken by the Library, Archive and Digitisation Assistant in a previous role:
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-MokoDiscussionPaper.html.
5
This is based on personal experience and advice from staff at UCL who worked on material for the Wellcome
Digital Library.
6
http://dublincore.org/
7
Metadata falls broadly into three categories: administrative, structural and descriptive. Descriptive metadata
captures similar information to that included in a library catalogue, e.g. title, author, abstract and so on.
Structural metadata captures the structure of an item; for a book this might include title page, contents,
chapters, chapter subdivisions and so on. This type of metadata is generally only captured if the digital item is
complex and there is a mechanism to present the interrelated digital scans/objects. Administrative metadata
covers technical, preservation and rights metadata.
8
20160817 Conway Hall Digital Collections metadata guide:
http://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/185
6
�2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
a. Write condition reports - photograph and describe existing damage for each item
b. Include item dimensions (if required)
From condition reports note where conservation work is required before an item can be
sent out for scanning - note costings and timelines
a. Currently we use the conservation services of National Conservation Services
Develop naming conventions; this has been completed for the Architecture and Place project
and so the naming conventions document for that project can be used as a guide for future
projects
Define scanning requirements; again this has been completed for the Architecture and Place
project and so there is guidance there
a. Minimal requirements
i. TIFF for master images; JPG for presentation images
ii. 400dpi
iii. Full colour
iv. With border (at least for archival material; may be required for print also)
Vendor
a. Experienced dealing with archival material? Ask for referrals
b. Costs
c. Transport
d. Timelines
e. Ensure that they hold onto items until we are full satisfied with delivered digital
images (nb. This did not happen with Architecture and Place therefore lesson
learnt!)
Undertake quality assurance (QA) for scanned digital items
a. For archival projects that are reasonably sized (a few hundred items) – check all
scans
b. For large (several thousand scans) print collection projects – check 10% of scans
Check physical items on return against condition reports, note damage and feed back to
scanning vendor
Store digital master images (TIFFS) in restricted harddrive or server space (S:\Digital) that is
backed up regularly
Expected Outputs
Obviously the main expected output is the digitisation project itself. However there are other
outputs such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scoping documents (collection, metadata, platform)
o Selection criteria document
Project plan with stated aims and objectives
Timeline, or perhaps Gantt chart for large projects
Condition reports
Scanning technical specifications and naming conventions document
Summary of consultation document - if undertaken
Metadata guide
Operational manual
7
�•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Due diligence forms (when searching for copyright holders)
Update reports for trustee meetings and blog updates
An end of project report
Marketing material (detailed further below in the Launch section)
Learning resources
Volunteer guides
Policy documents
Not all of these have been created for the Architecture and Place project, as yet at least. For other
projects there may be additional outputs. Some of these outputs may be shared with Information
Management colleagues or the public to share learning and show the decision making process. As
there is little standardisation of the digitisation process across the field it is best practice to share
what you have learned so those grappling with similar issues to you may benefit from your
knowledge.
Many of these documentary outputs allow you to demonstrate your decision making rationale to
trustees and others. In addition, they are invaluable when writing articles for scholarly or
professional journals.
Launch
The launch of a digitisation project is dependent on several factors: the content; size of project; what
partners are involved; how it can be tied to learning activities, a festival or some other public event;
budget; and many others.
For Architecture and Place we initially brainstormed several launch ideas (including holding a
minecraft competition) which were pared down when we considered actual and time costs. We tied
the launch to the Open House London Festival in September 2016 which gave a timeline of around a
year to complete the pilot project. The festival offered us the opportunity to promote the project as
well as gain feedback on possible future digitisation project topics. Over the festival weekend we
offered:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Access to the digitisation project
Images from the project projected onto a screen
A physical exhibition to complement the online project as well as display of several plans
(that could not fit in our exhibition cases)
A rehung light fitting that had previously lit the main hall including the plan for the fitting
and a photograph showing it in use
Project bookmarks and an exhibition pamphlet to promote the architecture of Conway Hall
and the digitisation project
Tours of the building focusing on the architecture as well as the society’s history
Family Trail Pack, again focusing on the architecture of the building
Generally, what needs to be prepared in advance of the project launch date?
•
•
•
Completed online collection
Contextual information (in the form of exhibits on Omeka)
A complementary physical exhibition in the library (if appropriate)
8
�•
•
•
•
Physical marketing items
Room bookings (as required)
Blurb to accompany online promotion of project (plus an idea of where to promote) 9
Associated activities to be delivered for launch such as family/community workshops, tours.
Omeka
Introduction
Omeka was the platform chosen on which to build our digitisation projects as it best met our needs
when compared to other platforms during our platform evaluation process. 10 Help pages for the
Omeka platform can be found at: http://info.omeka.net.
Settings Panel Configuration
The setup of Omeka is relatively straightforward. Doing so requires your own account (which you
can set up for free) and ‘Super’ access to the Conway Hall Omeka website/s.
From the ‘manage website’ Dashboard page you can see the Settings panel at the top with four
menu headings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plugins
Appearance
Users
Settings
Fig. 2 Settings Panel
Plugins
Plugins that are available for use on Omeka.net are listed on this menu. First a plugin must be
installed and then activated (using those respective buttons) before they can be used on the
9
We promoted the Architecture and Place digitisation project on Conway Hall’s social media; Twitter and
Facebook. To email lists: ARA, the UK discussion list for archivists, conservators and records managers; the
History and Digitisation as well as the Digitisation Strategy lists hosted by JISC; NZ-LIBS; as well as the Digital
Curation Interest Group and the Digital Content and Libraries Working Group (both US ALA lists). We
contacted the New York Society of Ethical Culture, Omeka.net to ask for project to be included on their
Showcase page and all the copyright holders who gave us permission to digitise. We asked for a blurb on the
project to be included in the Historic Libraries Forum newsletter and have been invited to submit an article
relating to the project to Archives and Records, an ARA journal for their autumn issue.
10
See 20160426 Scoping Platforms.docx (http://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/186) for more
details.
9
�platform. Some plugins require configuration and where this is possible/required there is an
additional ‘Configure’ button. The plugins that have been installed and are currently in use are:
Plugin name
COinS
CSS Editor
Exhibition Builder
GoogleAnalytics
Hide Elements
LC Suggest
PDF Text
Simple Pages
Simple Vocab
Configuration details
No configuration required
Clicking on the configure button here allows
addition of CSS code to make changes to how
the live page displays beyond that set in the
theme. A fuller description of what the current
CSS includes is detailed in figure 3 below. Please
note that the CSS editor for Omeka is somewhat
restrictive; once saving make sure to check that
the editor hasn’t deleted any elements or
attributes. Also note that you are currently
unable to include comments with your code.
Set to Alphabetical
The ID included here is from the account set up
for the Conwayhallcollections.omeka.net
website on the Conway Hall google analytics
account
Title is currently hidden on the public website
because of the CSS changes to the layout. If
further changes are made to the CSS then this
may need to be reconsidered.
It might be opportune to consider suppressing
certain fields from the Item type metadata to be
hidden from the public in the future.
This plugin is configured in the left hand menu
No configuration required
No configuration required
This plugin is configured in the left hand menu
/* Changes the order of display in item pages – ensures files display at top of page
and the rest of the table in order. This is done by forcing each div into a table format
to be organised. Width set to 70% to make sure content fitted well within page. */
div#content {
display:table;
width:70%
}
div#itemfiles {
display:table-header-group
}
div.element-set {
display:table-row-group
}
10
�div#item-citation {
display:table-row-group
}
div#collection {
display:table-footer-group
}
/* Suppresses pagination of files. */
ul.item-pagination {
display:none
}
/* Suppresses the display of the file header. */
div#itemfiles h3 {
display:none
}
Fig. 3 CSS code for ‘Thanks, Roy’ theme
There are several other plugins that may be of use in the future (especially the API plugin so material
can be exported) but only those absolutely required have been implemented at this time.
Appearance
The appearance menu has 3 tabs; Themes, Navigation and Settings.
Fig. 4 Appearance Configuration
Themes
Themes are the main way to change the look of the website. The theme currently used is called
“Thanks, Roy.” Changing the theme will not only impact the look of the website but also will cause
the CSS that has been written and included to probably break. For this reason if the theme is
11
�changed be sure to check what impact this has on the way fields are ordered on an item page and
recode the CSS as required to ensure that the item files (images etc) are at the top of the page.
Changing the theme will also affect which theme aspects can be changed as well so those discussed
below are specifically for the “Thanks, Roy” theme.
When you click on the ‘configure theme’ button you may change the following aspects:
Theme aspect
Colors
Logo file
Header background
Footer text
CSV Import
Display copyright in footer
Use advanced site-wide search
Display featured item
Display featured collection
Display featured exhibit
Home page recent items
Home page text
Item file gallery
Configuration details
The buttons and site title are set to #0292CE
which is the colour of the Conway Hall logo.
Other colours used were default from the
theme.
Use the Conway Hall colour logo - pay attention
to the height limitation (max. 150 pixels).
This is currently set to a cropped image from the
Architecture and Place project. This should be
changed when a new collection/project is added.
Don’t use an image which is too large as this may
cause it to display oddly on mobiles (this should
be picked up in the browser checks undertaken
prior to project launch).
Currently set to our address. Any changes there
may cause movement to other footer text (such
as the copyright statement) so be sure to check
this as you edit.
No configuration required
Ticked
Ticked
Ticked
Ticked
Ticked
Set to 5 currently (as more or less matches
length of ‘display featured…’ column).
Currently includes introduction to website and
library’s physical and digital collections.
Leave unticked! Suppresses full sized image
display which is why we do not use it.
12
�Navigation
Fig. 5 Navigation Configuration
In the navigation menu you can:
•
•
•
•
•
Select the home page (in the drop down menu at the right – red arrow in diagram)
o This is currently set to [default]
Set the order of the left hand (navigation) menu on the live website by dragging and
dropping the links into the preferred display order (see figure 6 below for live site example)
Set which of these navigation pages appear in the left hand menu by ticking or unticking the
checkboxes (green arrow in diagram)
Add links to the left hand menu (include URL and label and click ‘add link’)
Change labels on links (click on small arrow at right [see blue arrow in diagram] and edit
‘Label’ field)
13
�Fig. 6 Navigation Menu on Live Site
Browse pages (‘browse items’ etc) are created automatically and are included here. Other links are
for simple pages that have been created or links directly added to the navigation menu (such as the
Conway Hall link).
Settings (Appearance menu)
The ‘Settings’ tab of the ‘Appearance’ menu includes details around derivative size constraints and
display settings.
Setting
Fullsize image size
Thumbnail size
Square thumbnail size
Results per page (admin)
Results per page (public)
Show empty elements
Show empty set headings
Configuration details
Set to 600 pixels
Set to 200 pixels
Set to 200 pixels
Set to 20
Set to 10 (any more requires quite a bit of
scrolling by the user which is to be minimised)
Unticked
Unticked
Users
The user configuration menu is relatively small. Currently the site administrator (Library, Archives
and Digitisation Assistant) is the only ‘Super’ user. Both Sophie (Library and Learning Manager) and
Olwen (Cataloguer) are set as ‘Admin.’ 11 ‘Super’ access is required to access the Settings panel at the
top of the manage website Dashboard page and thus be able to edit the plugins, appearance, user or
settings menus. Changing the roles of users can be done by using the drop down menu to the right
of their name and clicking submit.
Deleting users is done by checking the remove box to the right of their name and clicking submit.
Adding a user requires the person’s email address and setting their role/level of access and clicking
11
https://omeka.org/codex/User_Roles
14
�invite at the bottom of the page. Be sure to let people know that they will need to create their own
(free) omeka account before the link they are emailed will work.
API keys (found below users’ names) are currently unused.
Settings
This general settings menu includes five tabs including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
General
Search
Element Sets
Item Type Elements
API
Fig. 7 General Settings Menu
General
Setting
Admin email
Configuration details
Currently set to Library, Archives and Digitisation
Assistant’s email address. Be sure to change this
if the admin person changes.
15
�Site title
Site description
Site copyright information
Site author information
Tag delimiter
Set to Humanist Library and Archives Digital
Collections
Brief description of website
Set to © 1787 - 2016 Conway Hall. Be sure to
change at the end of each year.
N/A – leave blank
Set to ‘;’ rather than the default comma as we
use commas in our tags. Do not change.
Search
Tick all the search record types to be searched at this point. If, because of the quality of the PDF
OCR, you do not want files to be indexed for searching and thus viewed then untick this option.
After adding new items to the collection/s click on ‘Index Records’ to ensure they are findable when
searching.
Element Sets
Currently there are two sets included in the element sets; Dublin Core and PDF Text. Dublin Core is
likely the only set you will need to edit.
In this menu you can do two things:
•
•
Change the order of the elements by dragging and dropping the links
o The order of the element set is the order they appear on the item/collection
description pages. This is unlikely to need changing.
Add comments to particular elements
o Currently only the final three elements (Coverage, relation and source) have
comments that principally say do not use or do not use for the Architecture and
Place project. These comments appear nearby to the elements on the ingest pages
on Omeka (see figure 8 below).
To be able to do either of these actions, click on ‘Edit’ below the element set name. To add
comments click on the arrows to the right of each element name you intend to edit (see figure 8). Be
sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you have finished editing.
16
�Fig. 8 Example of a comment added to an Element via the Element Sets Menu and how the comment appears
on an ingest page
Item Type Elements
These have not been currently edited at all by us and are unlikely to require editing in the future.
Please note from the description at the top of the page what is required to reorder the item types.
If changes are required, the elements may be deleted (by clicking on the X at the top right of the
element name and then clicking on ‘Save Changes’) or have their descriptions changed (by editing
the current description and clicking on ‘Save Changes’).
API
This menu allows you to configure the API. We do not currently need this functionality so the ‘Enable
API’ option is unticked. If migrating the data to a new platform then this option will most likely need
to be implemented.
Administration Menu
Fig. 9 Administration Menu
On the dashboard the left hand administration menu currently contains a number of links that allow
you to: see an overview of the website (dashboard); browse, search and add material (items,
collections and exhibitions); explore, add and edit metadata (item types and tags); view and edit
controlled vocabularies (LC suggest and simple vocab); create and edit simple pages; as well as
17
�import files (CSV import). Several of these will be explored in fuller detail in the ingest process
section below (items, collections and exhibitions, indicated by light blue arrows in figure 9) but the
rest are described here.
Dashboard
This page gives an overview of the content and backend of the website such as the number of items,
collections, tags, plugins and exhibitions that it contains or uses (see green oval in figure 9). It also
shows recent items and collections (with edit buttons) and you can add a new item or collection by
clicking on the appropriate button below each recent item or collections list.
Item Types
Fig. 10 Item Types Menu
There are sixteen default item types in Omeka that are used to describe items, collections and so on.
By clicking on an item type (red arrow in figure 10) you will see the item type description, elements
included in the type, recently added items of that type and the total number of items of that type
(see figure 11 below). From the main item type page, you can click on the total items number on the
right of an item type (blue arrow in figure 10) and browse all items of that particular type.
There is the functionality to add more items types if they are required but we do not foresee this
being needed. If this functionality is required then help can be found on the Omeka.net website. 12
12
http://info.omeka.net/manage-item-types/
18
�Fig. 11 Example of an Item Type summary page
Tags
The tags page (see figure 12 below) shows you the tags used throughout the website and the
frequency of that usage. You can sort the tags by most frequent, least frequent, alphabetical order
or by most recent by using the buttons at the top of the page. You can also limit the tags shown by
record type by using the drop-down menu (only items are tagged at the moment but this may
change in the future).
A description of how to edit tags (for misspelling, deletion etc.) is also included on this page. Be
careful with deletions as deleting a tag here deletes it site wide. If you want to remove a tag from an
item or collection then remove it from the tag tab for that particular item/collection.
19
�Fig. 12 Tags
LC Suggest
This menu item was added by the LC Suggest plugin. You can choose an element from the dropdown menu and then set an authority or vocabulary/ies to that element using the lower drop-down
menu. Click ‘Edit Suggest’ when done to save. The current assignments are show in the table below
the authority/vocabulary menu.
LC Names are used for the creator, contributor and publisher fields. LC Subject Headings is used for
the subject field. The MARC List for Languages is used for the language field.
You cannot add new authority/vocabulary terms to these authorities either in this menu or in the
appropriate field when editing an item or other content page.
Simple Pages
Fig. 13 Simple Pages
This menu item was added by the Simple Pages plugin. The Simple Pages Menu shows the current
list of simple pages (presently this includes ‘About’ and ‘Feedback’) in List view or Hierarchy view.
20
�You can add a simple page by clicking on the ‘Add a page’ button or delete an existing page by
clicking on ‘Delete’ below the appropriate page.
For simple pages you can add:
•
•
•
•
Title – required
Slug – part of the URL for this simple page. Make sure it’s all in lower case and uses dashes
for spaces
Use HTML editor – tick the checkbox if you need to include HTML code
Text – click on HTML to edit in HTML view
On the right hand side of the simple page edit page there are buttons for saving, viewing (to
preview) or deleting. You can set the parent page and the order (if there are several simple pages
with the same parent page). To publish the page you must tick the ‘Publish this page?’ checkbox and
then the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Simple Vocab
Fig. 14 Simple Vocab example showing terms for Element ‘Format’
This menu item was added by the Simple Vocab plugin. On this page you can add or edit your own
controlled vocabulary terms for elements. Instructions for adding/editing a controlled vocabulary for
21
�an element is given on the page and you can click on the ‘Add/Edit Vocabulary’ button to save
changes. You can also click on a link (‘Click here’) to display how many times terms have been used
for the selected element.
Fig. 15 Example of Simple Vocab use
Please note that when Simple Vocab is used that the text box for the relevant element in the item or
collection DC edit page disappears and is replaced with a controlled vocabulary drop-down menu so
only use this for elements with a very few set terms (see figure 15 for an example). For our
installation of Omeka Simple Vocab is used for the fields ‘format’ and ‘type’ only. The terms for
these fields come from well-established vocabularies. 13 Currently there are only three in ‘format’ but
more can be added if they are required (see Miller textbook and the metadata guidance document).
Also note that Simple Vocab supersedes LC Suggest so if you have both in use for a field only the
Simple Vocab options will appear (in a drop-down menu).
CSV Import
This menu item was added by the CSV Import plugin. It has not been used as yet but may be used if
migrating records from Heritage to Omeka. More details on this plugin can be found online. 14
Ingest Process
The ingest process for Omeka is as follows:
1. Create collection/s;
2. Add items; and then
3. Create exhibits drawing on collection items.
13
Miller, Stephen J. Metadata for Digital Collections: A How-to-do-it Manual. London: Facet Publishing, 2011.
http://info.omeka.net/csv-import/
14
22
�It is absolutely important to undertake browser testing (in both desktop and mobile browsers) to
ensure that everything displays correctly and as expected. This can be done as each step is
undertaken and is it also recommended to browser test a sample of items and exhibitions at the end
of the ingest process as a final test before launching the project online.
Collection Creation
The collections menu can be accessed via a link on the left hand administration menu in the
dashboard view of the Conway Hall Digital Collections website. From here you can edit existing
collections by clicking on the ‘Edit’ link below the collection name or you can add a new collection
using ‘Add a Collection’ button.
Each collection has its own associated DC metadata and so the metadata guide may be used to
determine how each field should be formatted and used. A collection requires:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Title
Description
Creator (for Collections this will be ‘Humanist Library and Archives’)
Date (year of digital collection creation)
Publisher (‘Conway Hall Ethical Society’)
Subject (If LC Suggest does not work for collection creation then you can find LC Subject
headings elsewhere).15 For multiple subjects, click on the ‘Add Input’ button below the
Subject field heading to add a new subject (see figure 16 below). For each new subject click
on the ‘Add Input’ button and add the subject to its own textbox
A collection may also have contributor/s, perhaps partners or other creators, and this information
may also be included. Collection rights are unlikely to be defined; most collections will be made up
of diverse items with different rights in use. Other metadata fields may be used as appropriate (such
as language for a text collection) but the 6 fields listed above will certainly be adequate for the
majority of collections.
To the right of the metadata there are two checkboxes below the ‘Add Collection’ or ‘Save Changes’
button; the ‘public’ and ‘featured’ checkboxes (see figure 16 below). With these unticked the
collection is saved in draft form. ‘Public’ is self-explanatory; ‘featured’ adds the collection as an
option for content in the featured collection box on the website homepage.
15
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html
23
�Fig. 16 Example of multiple Subjects applied to a Collection; also shows Save/View/Delete buttons and Public
and Featured tickboxes
Add Items 16
Fig. 17 Browse Item Page
16
See http://info.omeka.net/add-items/ for a step by step general guide.
24
�The ‘Browse Item’ page (see figure 17 above) can be accessed via the left hand administration menu
by selecting ‘Items’. On this page you can use buttons at the top of the page to:
•
•
•
Add an item
Show details of items on the page (the details shown include the item description, the
collection to which an item belongs and the tags assigned to it)
Search items
You can also select some or all of the items shown on a page using the tickboxes to the left of an
items title and use a number of buttons at the top of the page to:
•
•
•
Batch edit
Delete
Quick filter to show only public, private or featured items.
Using the ‘Edit’ button after selecting the items you want to batch edit (see figure 18 below) will
allow you to set items:
•
•
•
•
•
•
To public or private
To be featured
To a particular item type (drop-down menu) or to remove that item type from selected
items using a checkbox
To a particular collection (drop-down menu) or to remove that collection from selected
items using a checkbox
To include particular tags
To be deleted
25
�Fig. 18 Batch Item Editing
From the browse page you can also edit and delete existing items by clicking on the links below the
item title.
Fig. 19 Add an Item Editing
26
�The following description is to add a new item but much
will be applicable to editing an existing item. After clicking
on the ‘Add an Item’ button at the top of the ‘Browse
Items’ page you will be taken to the ‘Dublin Core’ tab (see
figure 19 above). This metadata can be created using the
metadata guide.
The ‘Item Type Metadata’ tab is also included in the
metadata guide. Choose from the drop down menu the
appropriate type you wish to use and then use the guide
to assist in filling in the associated elements. Currently the
number of Item Types used are very few and so there is
limited guidance given in the metadata guide. If using an
Item Type not included in the metadata guide, consider
the fields that exist for that item, the items you wish to
include and use those fields that are the most appropriate
for those items. Ensure consistency in field usage and
document this in the metadata guide for future
administrators.
The ‘Files’ tab is the next in the sequence. You may add
multiple files to an item record and they will appear in
sequence in the order in which you added them. Choose a
file using the ‘Choose File’ button and navigating to the file
you wish to use. If you wish to add multiple files then click
on ‘Add Another File’ and repeat the process. You must
click on ‘Add Item’ (or ‘Save Changes’ when editing) to
save the files to the record.
Once a file has been added and saved you can drag and
drop the file to change the sequence in which the files will
appear on the item’s webpage, edit a file (meaning add DC
metadata to it) or delete a file. We do not currently
include DC metadata for files as this was not deemed
necessary (much of it would just duplicate information
held in the item’s DC metadata). If you click on a file link it
will take you to a page where a large amount of technical
and administrative metadata (see figure 20) is displayed
down the right hand side. All of the technical metadata is
encoded in the file itself when it was created and then
displayed here; the administrative metadata is created by
Omeka when the file is added.
Fig. 20 Example of File Technical
and Administrative Metadata
27
�Although adding DC metadata to each file has not been done in the case of the Architecture and
Place project (see figure 21 – solid arrows indicate what has been included; dashed-lined arrows
indicate what has not) this functionality may be useful for future projects.
Fig. 21 Metadata included in Architecture and Place project
The ‘Tag’ tab allows the addition of tags using a semi-colon (;) to separate each tag. Click ‘Add Tags’
to save tags. Guidance for tagging can be found in the metadata guide.
For each item, you may then make them public and/or a featured item using the checkboxes found
at the top right of the editing pages underneath the ‘Add Item’ button (or ‘Save Changes,’ ‘View
Public Page,’ and ‘Delete’ buttons when editing an existing item). Lastly be sure to assign each item
to a collection using the drop-down menu below the checkboxes. Make sure to save often while
editing so you do not lose your work if the browser crashes.
Finally, when adding a new collection be sure to consider changing which collection/s, items and
exhibits are featured. Also consider changing the background header.
Exhibit Creation
Exhibits within the Omeka platform can be used to provide contextual information on the collections
hosted therein. Simple pages may be used for this too but they do not take advantage of the display
options for selected items that can be used within the exhibit pages. The Exhibits page is accessed
via the left hand administration menu.
Like the collection and item browse pages, you can edit, delete and create exhibits on the exhibit
browse page.
The metadata for Exhibit pages is quite different to that used for collection and item pages – it is not
in DC form.
28
�Fig. 22 Creating an Exhibit
The ‘fields’ used for exhibits include:
•
•
Title - required
Slug (use lowercase letters and dashes for spaces) - required
29
�•
•
•
•
•
•
Credits (use your full name in normal order ie. first name last name [rather than the order
for names used for the DC fields)
Description (exhibit summary, can use HTML if required by clicking on HTML button in
textbox) - required
Tags
Theme dropdown menu (leave this set to ‘Current Public Theme’) - required
Use Summary Page? Checkbox (untick this as the current theme makes navigating from the
summary page unclear. The summary page then is used to provide information on the
browse exhibit page) - required
Cover Image (if you don’t want your exhibit to default to use the first image included in the
exhibit, then you can set the Cover Image to another image by clicking on ‘Change’)
Below these fields there is the ‘Pages’ section. It will contain pages already created as well as an
‘Add Page’ button. You can reorganise existing exhibit pages by dragging and dropping a page to
change the order.
Finally there are the ‘Save Changes’, ‘View Public Page’ and ‘Delete’ buttons at the top right of the
create/edit exhibit page with the ‘Public’ and ‘Featured’ checkboxes which have been outlined
above.
Adding Pages to Exhibits
The following description is for adding an exhibit page to an exhibit but much of it can be used as
guidance for editing existing exhibit pages.
Each new page (see figure 23 below) has:
•
•
•
A page title;
A page slug;
And content.
Content is organised into blocks. In this way you can choose (select layout) to have a block which is a
mix of selected items and text, a gallery of items, just text or a singular file. As you create you can
add blocks of content as required if you want to change format (from text to a gallery and so on).
You could do this too for other types of formatting changes (such as significant changes in font type,
size, etc).
Layout
File with Text
Gallery
Usage
Can add any number of items (and include
captions), text (and use HTML [HTML button
next to dropdown menu above text box] for
formatting) as well as set layout options at the
bottom of the block – file position, file size and
caption position. N.B. that these layout options
will affect all items in this block. If you want to
align an item to the opposite side then you will
need to start a new block.
Can add any number of items (and include item
captions), gallery description (and use HTML).
30
�Layout options for gallery blocks include:
Showcase file position, gallery position (only
used if there is a showcase file), gallery file size
(square thumbnail and thumbnail), and captions
position.
Text
Text blocks have the text box only with the
opportunity to edit in HTML.
File
Can add a number of files (including captions)
but unlike Gallery layout cannot add a gallery
description. Also images default to display as full
size rather than square thumbnails. Layout
options for file blocks include: file position, file
size (full size, square thumbnail and thumbnail)
and captions position.
While editing an exhibit page you can also use the Expand All or Collapse All links to the right of the
Content heading to assist you when organising your exhibit page. When the page is completed it can
be saved using either the ‘Save Changes’ or ‘Save and Add Another Page’ buttons at the top right of
the page.
Fig. 23 Adding a Page to an Exhibit
31
�Reflection
Reflecting on the digitisation project occurs throughout the project and beyond its public launch.
Documenting the process and decision making while developing and implementing the project is to
be recommended; do not wait until the project is launched to begin documenting as it can be
difficult to recapture your thinking clearly at the time.
At project launch user evaluation can begin and be monitored. Evaluation of the project itself can
begin after launch and the results of both sets of evaluation can be analysed while you develop your
end of project report which summarises the digitisation process, issues and barriers encountered,
decision making, lessons learnt and recommendations for future projects.
Documentation
The documentation to be undertaken throughout the project is covered thoroughly in the Expected
Outputs section of this operational manual.
Ensure, by the end of the project, that your documentation covers:
•
•
•
•
•
Decision making
Process
Reflection
Any benchmarking set or followed
Policy development
Evaluation
For the Humanist Library and Archives, when we considered evaluation:
•
•
We wanted to build it in to our projects from launch, if not before
We asked:
o What do we want to get from it?
o What do we do with it going forward?
User - Direct
User evaluation is still relatively uncommon within the digitisation field despite UX (User Experience)
testing being prevalent in the field of IT and so it is somewhat surprising that it is not more fully
utilised in the development of digitisation projects.
For our digitisation programme we have chosen to integrate direct user evaluation into our
digitisation project/s from launch via an online survey requesting user feedback on the project. We
will use this information to improve our website (where possible) in response to feedback, either
positive or negative, as well as develop future projects around the themes approved of in the
included consultation questions.
User - Indirect
In addition to directly gaining feedback from users we are able to use Google Analytics to undertake
the more common evaluation used by digitising institutions and look at:
•
•
Number of page views
Number of new visitors
32
�•
•
Average duration of sessions
Distribution of users
As well as other indicators of use to gain a better understanding of how the website is used.
As collections are added you will be able to use Google Analytics to evaluate your different
digitisation projects collectively on the platform easily or page by page which will take quite some
time. A collective comparison of new data post project launch may be compared to previous data
but it may not be indicative of the impact of the new project and this must be stated in a disclaimer
if this is the only statistical method used when reported.
Internal
To measure the success of the project you must check to see how well the project met the stated
aims and objectives noted in the project plan.
As the Architecture and Place project was a pilot project with only a digitisation project timeline as a
guideline it still had a number of general aims and objectives to be met and this is outlined in full in
the end of project report. If writing a project plan, then in addition to general objects, such as scan
selected items in a timely manner, you can include more specific goals such as: promote project to X
number of electronic mail lists, have X number of new users to website within first two weeks of
project going live, push students from integrated learning courses to new digitised collection and so
on.
How well you meet these goals therefore can be evaluated to gain a fuller understanding of the
success of the project and what could be done to improve projects in the future.
Both the documentation and evaluation is useful information to include when making grant
applications to funding bodies; it demonstrates responsiveness to learning and to your audience
which is often considered important by funders. It can also demonstrate your commitment to
completing projects which can also be fundamental in successful applications.
End of Project Report
The final part of formal reflection is in producing an end of project report. This report will most likely
be kept relatively private as this is the point where honesty is paramount; no glossing over errors or
problems. Instead these must be highlighted along with the successes to ensure the opportunities
afforded for learning are taken.
Outline:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Your aims and objectives
Summarise your project scope (and consultation if undertaken)
Summarise scanning costs, timelines, quality and any damage caused by vendor
Summarise item description work required and metadata details
Expected outputs and how these were met
Implementation of project
Launch details
Answer the following:
33
�•
•
•
Did you meet your deadlines? If not, why not?
Were you within budget? If not, why not?
Did you meet your aims and objectives? If not, why not?
Summarise the problems or barriers encountered and how these were dealt with. Explicitly state any
lessons learned from these experiences and make recommendations for future projects. For a pilot
project there will be a number of lessons learned to be described.
Finally, summarise your project successes, any future activities and include your conclusions.
Final Notes
This document may be updated as needed but make sure to update the version number and save as
a new file. In the new version of the document include a summary of changes made so these can be
easily tracked across the versions.
34
�Glossary
Term
Element
Ingest
Slug
17
Definition
An element (also known as a field or property)
captures an aspect of metadata about an item.
For example, name, creator and so on.
The process of adding content (including digital
objects, metadata and so on) onto a digitisation
platform.
A part of the URL that identifies a page in
human-readable keywords. 17 In Omeka a large
part of a page’s URL is automatically generated;
the slug however is editable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_URL#Slug
35
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Digitisation Working Documents and Reports
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of documents created during the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of digitisation projects of the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Language
A language of the resource
English
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Humanist Library and Archives digitisation operation manual 1.0
Description
An account of the resource
A how-to guide for digitisation at the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Callaghan, Samantha
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Digitization
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work by <span>Conway Hall Ethical Society</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BD-DD0005
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Administration
Conway Hall Ethical Society
-
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PDF Text
Text
CONWAY HALL
Conway Hall Digitisation Policy
2016- 2019
prepared by Sophie Hawkey-Edwards, Library & Learning Manager | October 2016
Page !1 of 5
!
�CONWAY HALL
CONWAY HALL
HUMANIST LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
DIGITISATION POLICY 2016-2019
Introduction and context
Conway Hall Humanist Library and Archives holds a unique collection of material relating to
humanism, ethics, rationalism and philosophy. The Library also holds the archives of the
South Place Ethical Society and the National Secular Society.
Digitisation of library and archive materials has benefits beyond creating online access and
helping to preserve the original items. There is the potential to exploit these resources to
support formal and informal learning programmes and projects, to increase community
engagement, and to support the creation of physical and online exhibitions, and marketing
and fundraising.
The Conway Hall Centenary Strategy 2016 is committed to,
'Increasing the quality, volume and reach of digital cultural content'
This policy aims to set out Conway Hall’s approach to this strategic priority in terms of our
library and archive collections and to create a framework for its digitisation activities in the
short to medium term. This document builds on lessons learnt from the completion of an
initial pilot project digitising selected materials from the collections. From this pilot the
processes and procedures required to digitise have begun to be formulated and explored.
This policy should be read in conjunction with the Digitisation Operational Manual 2016.
Scope
This policy applies to digitisation of materials held and managed by Conway Hall Humanist
Library and Archives.
Digitisation objectives
• Open up access to Conway Hall Humanist Library & Archives collections for researchers
and the public.
• Increase the visibility and use of our collections on both a local and global scale.
• Increase public engagement activities through facilitation of interpretation of digitised
content by members of the community.
• Enhance the user experience with increased digitised content.
• Increase the discoverability of our collections.
• Preserve fragile and rare items through creation of digital reproductions.
• Prioritise digitisation of items based on feedback from our audiences and associated
research.
• Work internally (with marketing team) and externally (with our partners) to find ways of
promoting our collections to a wider audience.
Page !2 of 5
!
�Selection for digitisation
Conway Hall Library will work closely with library users and other stakeholders to establish
priorities for digitisation. Consultation will be undertaken with users, staff and volunteers
through evaluation forms/surveys about our digitisation plans. This will be used to direct and
inform future plans, projects and funding opportunities.
Digitisation activities currently take place within the context of a project. Selection of the
materials to be digitised is therefore influenced by the needs and scope of the project, but
will also comply with the objectives above. Additionally consideration will be given to:
・ the potential demand from users.
・ the condition of the materials to be digitised (including potential conservation costs and
activities).
・ material is eligible for public access (i.e. no sensitive information subject to data protection).
・ material is owned by Conway Hall Ethical Society, is in the public domain, or we have
permission to digitise and make the material available online.
The same considerations should be given for any digitisation taking place outside of the
context of a project.
Standards and good practice
The physical process of scanning for digitisation will be carried out by the most cost-effective
method and, in most cases, will be outsourced to reputable companies.
Technical standards, processes and guidelines for digitisation projects will be developed and
followed. Open file formats will be used as preference however the choice of format will in
part be influenced by preservation requirements. There should be no need to digitise any
item a second time for a different purpose.
Appropriate administrative metadata, including technical, rights and preservation will be
created as part of the digitisation process and associated with the digital objects, to support
both access and preservation. All such metadata will be standards-based.
Copyright will be cleared for works we intend to digitise that fall within copyright. Where
rights holders cannot be identified or found we will make use of the EU Orphan Works
Directive (2012/28/EU) where appropriate or the UK Orphan Works Licensing Scheme.
Each digitisation project will be managed by Conway Hall Library staff who understand the
project's content and users, with digitisation vendors and partners being responsible for
relevant deliverables.
Formal guidelines will be in place to cover all aspects of handling and transporting library and
archive materials and they will be integrated into any contracts with external suppliers.
Page !3 of 5
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�Digitisation will capture, preserve and provide contextual information about the digitised
records to ensure their future discoverability and re-use.
Conway Hall Humanist Library & Archives will work with peers, partners and the community
to raise awareness and encourage use of the created digital resources.
Presenting digitised content online
Digitised items and content should be suitable for the widest possible range of potential
users and for groups/individuals wishing to use it for a variety of purposes (dependent on
restrictions under the digital rights of items).
Discovery tools should be straightforward to use and allow users to find the information they
want quickly and easily.
Descriptive metadata should conform to international standards where possible and should
be associated with each digitised item (refer to Digitisation Operational Manual/Metadata
document). Much of the digitised content would benefit from additional information (for
context/interpretation) and will lend themselves to good community engagement
opportunities.
Optical character recognition (OCR) should be used to make digitised text searchable.
Transcripts or contextual information may be required for some items to interpret and make
the content more useable.
All digitised content online should include a clear statement of copyright, including end-user
rights. Wherever possible a Creative Commons licence should be used to allow free use.
All digitised content will be made as visible as possible to external search engines, cultural
heritage portals and other specialist aggregators.
Sustainability
We will advocate for core funding for digitisation and look at developing external funding proposals to increase
our capacity to digitise our collections. We will also look to develop partnerships with other specialist or
academic libraries to co-create digitisation projects.
Success factors
Feedback from users and regular evaluations will be carried out on digitised content and
measured against performance indicators (appendix 1). Online feedback forms, surveys and
usage statistics will be used to measure the amount and type of usage, and the degree of
user satisfaction. Evaluation will include both qualitative and quantitate measures which will
be used to create an end of project report.
Review
This policy will be reviewed annually by Library & Learning Manager and modified as needed
to reflect current strategic priorities and infrastructure.
Page !4 of 5
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�Appendix 1
Performance indicators
•
•
•
•
•
Numbers of digitised items created
Number of times digitised items accessed online / downloaded
Number of visitors to online and physical exhibitions of digitised materials
Remote user satisfaction in using online digitisation platforms
Number of people who have taken part in community engagement activities related to our
digitised content.
• Number of materials conserved to aid digitisation.
Page !5 of 5
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�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Digitisation Working Documents and Reports
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of documents created during the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of digitisation projects of the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Language
A language of the resource
English
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Humanist Library and Archives digitisation policy 2016-2019
Description
An account of the resource
A digitisation policy for the Humanist Library and Archives at Conway Hall, 2016-2019.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hawkey-Edwards, Sophie
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work by <span>Conway Hall Ethical Society</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BD-DD0004
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Administration
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Policies
-
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PDF Text
Text
Companion Guide for Copyright Due
Diligence
This document provides additional assistance and should be used in conjunction with the following
documents:
•
•
•
•
Orphan Works Licensing Scheme: Overview for Applicants;
Orphan Works Diligent Search Guidance for Applicants: Still Visual Art;
Orphan Works Diligent Search Guidance for Applicants: Literary Works; and,
Any others 1 which are deemed necessary for the works being considered for digitisation.
The steps to be followed when undertaking due diligence are as follows:
1. Determine work copyright status (where possible)
2. If work is not in the public domain, not licenced under Creative Commons or another nonCopyright provision, you do not own the copyright yourself and do not know who to request
copyright permission from, then start copyright due diligence
3. Depending on outcome of due diligence you may:
a. Identify the copyright holder and request permission to digitise from them
b. Fail to identify current copyright holder
4. If you fail to identify the current copyright holder you may (as of November 2016)
a. License the work as an orphan work under the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
Orphan Works Licensing Scheme, or
b. License the work as an orphan work under the EU Orphan Works Directive
2012/28/EU2 provided the work meets certain criteria
Copyright Status
Each works requires that its copyright status be determined. You may already know this or you can
use Annex B, duration of copyright flowcharts, in the guidance documents referenced above. Please
record the copyright status once found in a due diligence spreadsheet; this will help track which
items require further due diligence work and which do not.
If an item is:
•
•
•
1
2
In the public domain then digitise as such using tools found here:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/
Licenced under Creative Commons or other copyleft provision then digitise and license as
instructed by the original licence
Owned by Conway Hall Ethical Society or the library, then digitise under an appropriate
Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/
See https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/orphan-works-guidance for latest versions of documents.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:299:0005:0012:EN:PDF
�•
In copyright and you know the identity of the copyright holder, then contact the copyright
holder and request permission to digitise the item (also ask if you may use reproductions to
promote digitisation project).
If the item’s copyright status does not match any of these conditions then undertake copyright due
diligence.
Copyright Due Diligence
Copyright due diligence is undertaken to:
1. Assist you in identifying a current copyright holder, or failing that,
2. Allow you to demonstrate that the work is an orphan work and therefore can either be
licenced for use via the UK IPO or the EU Orphan Works Directive.
Licensing via one of the orphan works schemes is a risk mitigation enterprise. Many heritage
institutions digitise without making use of these licensing schemes as the risk of being litigated
against by a copyright holder for an orphan work is very small. A decision to not make use of the
scheme is dependent on the level of risk presented by digitising without licensing versus the level of
risk aversion of the institution.
The UK IPO due diligence checklists are used for this process. The notes given below are additional
guidance for undertaking copyright due diligence developed throughout the Architecture and Place
digitisation project and thus all checklists are not currently covered by this advice.
In addition to the guidance below, make use of completed checklists that were accepted for
licensing (see Architecture and Place files) as examples.
Standalone Visual Art
The checklist for standalone visual art is quite long but you will not need to complete a search for
particular sections of it if they don’t relate to your work’s medium, i.e. you won’t have to undertake
searches for photography organisations if the item in question is a drawing.
Source
UK Orphan Works Register
Credits and other
information appearing on
the work
FOB database
Companies House
Metadata
The provenance of the
work
Details
https://www.orphanworkslicensing.service.gov.uk/view-register
As described.
http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/fob.cfm
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk
For digitally born or digitised items – can be found in record for item
(if it exists) or is embedded in digital object itself. For images, open in
Irfanview, click on ‘image’ menu and then ‘information.’ At the bottom
left of image properties there are two buttons, ‘EXIF info’ and ‘IPTC
info’ – check the metadata included here for creator name or other
identifiers. You can also use: http://regex.info/exif.cgi to check
embedded metadata.
For archives check finding aid/catalogue. For library items check
catalogue notes.
�General internet searching
Water mark search or
image recognition
software
Association of
Photographers (AOP)
British Association of
Picture Libraries and
Agencies (BAPLA)
British Institute of
Professional
Photographers (BIPP)
British Press
Photographers Association
(BPPA)
British Society of
Underwater
Photographers (BSUP)
Bureau of Freelance
Photographers (BFP)
Chartered Institute of
Journalists (CIOJ)
Editorial Photographers UK
(EPUK)
Master Photographers
Association (MPA)
National Association of
Press Agencies (NAPA)
National Union of
Journalists (NUJ)
Outdoor Writers and
Photographers Guild
(OWPG)
Pro-Imaging
Redeye Network
Royal Academy of Art
Royal Photographic Society
(RPS)
This is likely to be done several times throughout the due diligence
check as new information comes to light.
For digitally born or digitised items – You can search Google Images by
image (go to https://images.google.com/ and click on the camera to
upload the digital image) to attempt image recognition. There are
freely available watermark search applications but different
watermarking programmes may code digital watermarks differently
and so the search applications may not be useful if they do not
recognise the specific code for a digital watermark.
http://www.the-aop.org/ founded in 1968. Requires photographer
name to search by.
BAPLA has an Orphan Works search request page
(http://www.bapla.org.uk/en/feedback/show_feedback_page.html)
but when used received very few responses and email address was
added to some libraries and agencies email lists which was annoying. If
you have a particular topic which is covered here:
http://www.bapla.org.uk/en/pages/show_subject_search.html then
you can click through, open up all the appropriate webpages for that
topic and search using appropriate keywords.
http://www.bipp.com/Default.aspx?tabid=87 founded 1901. Search
for contemporary photographers by name.
https://thebppa.com/galleries/ founded in 1984. Search for
contemporary photographers by name.
http://www.bsoup.org/Links/Members.php or
http://www.bsoup.org/Contributors.php founded in 1967. Search for
contemporary underwater photographers by name.
http://www.thebfp.com/ search using search box. May have to contact
by email.
Website currently hacked – website is http://cioj.co.uk/
http://www.epuk.org/ founded in 1999. Search contemporary
photographers by name.
http://www.masterphotographersassociation.co.uk/ founded in 1952.
Search contemporary photographers by name.
http://www.napa.org.uk/directory.aspx founded in 1982. Search
contemporary people by name.
https://www.nuj.org.uk/home/ founded in 1907. Search for
contemporary members by name.
http://www.owpg.org.uk/member-profiles/ founded in 1980. Search
for contemporary people by name.
http://www.pro-imaging.org/ founded in 2004. Search for
contemporary image makers by name.
https://www.redeye.org.uk/portfolios founded in 1998. Search for
contemporary photographers by name.
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ - search by creator name and/or
appropriate keywords
http://www.rps.org/membership/member-search founded in 1853.
Search for photographer by name.
�Royal Scottish Academy of
Art
Society of Wedding and
Portrait Photographers
Association of Illustrators
(AOI)
Cartoonists’ Club of Great
Britain (CCGB)
Comic Creators Guild (CCG)
Guild of Railway Artists
(GRA)
Institute of Medical
Illustrators (IMI)
Professional Cartoonists’
Organisation (PCO)
Royal British Society of
Sculptors (RBSS)
Society for Architectural
Illustration (SAI)
Illustration portfolios
Commercial photography
agencies and libraries
CEPIC
Library of Congress
DACS
Artist Collecting Society
WATCH (Writers Artists
and their Copyright
Holders)
BBC painting database
http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/ search by creator name and/or
appropriate keywords.
https://www.swpp.co.uk/find_photographer.htm founded in 1988.
Search for contemporary photographer by name.
http://www.theaoi.com/portfolios/index.php/portfolios/artists
founded in 1973. Search for contemporary artist by name.
http://www.ccgb.org.uk/gallery/ founded in 1960. Search for
contemporary cartoonists by name.
Unable to search; website no longer available.
http://www.railart.co.uk/gallery.html founded in the 1970s. Search for
contemporary artist by name.
http://www.imi.org.uk/find-a-professional founded in 1968. Search for
contemporary illustrator by keyword and geographic location.
http://procartoonists.org/portfolios/?order=alphabetical founded in
2006. Search for contemporary cartoonist by name.
http://rbs.org.uk/artists/list founded in 1905. Search for sculptor by
name.
http://www.sai.org.uk/illustrators/ founded in 1975. Search for
contemporary architectural illustrator by name.
Direct links offered in UK IPO guidance (p. 13).
Direct links offered in UK IPO guidance (p. 14). However as many of
these would be searched as a part of the BAPLA search you may
choose to do the Photo Archive News, Stock Index Online and Press
Photo History Project only instead. Note which searched in checklist.
CEPIC is a membership organisation for photo libraries and thus is not
of much use when searching for a particular photographer. CEPIC does
not offer, at this time, facilities to search across the collections of their
members’ libraries and so it is appropriate to note “Not applicable,
have searched all relevant picture libraries elsewhere in checklist” on
the checklist.
https://www.loc.gov/
Use https://www.dacs.org.uk/licensing-works/artist-search to search
by name if known; use https://www.artimage.org.uk/ to search by
keyword for match to image.
Search http://artistscollectingsociety.org/members/ by artist name if
known.
http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/
The BBC painting database (Your Paintings) no longer exists and has
been replaced by ArtUK: http://artuk.org/
Library indexes and
Search the British Library
museum catalogues
http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=BLVU
1 and WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/ catalogues as well as any
identified museum catalogues appropriate to the creator or work.
CopyrightHub
http://www.copyrighthub.co.uk/get-permission provides guidance on
where to look for permission depending on medium. For many graphic
and textual works you may include, “all options offered there searched
elsewhere in checklist,” if true.
Image registers
https://www.plusregistry.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/PlusDB
Web based search tools for https://picscout.com/solutions/search/ and click ‘Launch Tool’.
�images (PicScout and
TinEye)
British Journal of
Photography
University art faculty
alumni
Arts Council
Digitised newspaper
archives
Genealogy websites
Wills – searching for family
members or connections
of the author
Archives
Treasury solicitors
Other sources identified
https://www.tineye.com/ You may have to resize and make images
smaller as large images (10MB or more) can cause PicScout to timeout.
A British Journal of Photography editorial staff member
http://www.bjp-online.com/contact-us/ may be contacted if you know
a photographer’s name. Make sure to include the photographer’s
name, time when active, where they were based and any other salient
details your query and state that you are looking to contact the
photographer (if contemporary) or their copyright holder. Ask whether
there was any mention of photographer in the magazine or its earlier
incarnations.
A search may be undertaken if the Art School/University of creator is
known.
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ Subscription service.
http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ Subscription service.
https://familysearch.org/ requires an account (which is free) and may
offer different resources than those available on Ancestry.
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills Requires surname and
date of death. Please note tabs for searching – deaths after 1996,
deaths between 1858 and 1996, and soldiers wills. At time of writing it
costs £10/will. There are some wills accessible via the National
Archives (see link below)
ArchivesHub: http://archiveshub.ac.uk/, the National Archives:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/, and AIM25:
http://www.aim25.com/
The unclaimed estates list (CSV file) can be downloaded from
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unclaimedestates-list and searched by creator or copyright holder name if
known.
Other sources may become apparent while undertaking due diligence
and when searched can be noted here.
Unpublished Still Visual Art
The sources required for this checklist are covered in the above source list for Standalone Visual Art.
Unpublished Literary Works
This checklist will be used for unpublished letters, notes, manuscripts and so on and used extensively
for archival material. The sources required for this checklist are also covered in the above source list
for Standalone Visual Art.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Digitisation Working Documents and Reports
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of documents created during the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of digitisation projects of the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Language
A language of the resource
English
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Companion guide for copyright due diligence
Description
An account of the resource
A companion guide for the copyright due diligence checklists and guides supplied by the UK Intellectual Property Office.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Callaghan, Samantha
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Copyright
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work by <span>Conway Hall Ethical Society</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BD-DD0003
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Administration
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Copyright
Due diligence
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/9dc9bb68752466a5559b6a120a0e2561.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=qYaYr8eJ0tyolXELGZdbgmIs0CCivJ2fzJxPChKIklcxw3OG2LvPjzxVYKetMfdGlagg1Gzdwp%7EVm2UMsowMrLWUSlv1G79gmCAQSyKNF%7Ee1fA1sX4TzXn5sDhGzxpSCiPPn2SLRdAPvgyr3l8h2Xgf4ahjM1rUC2KN-v6XQKpj-ehqmUFiBcC9KOiG9DXG-r2Mkee4KGmLrmttJN24IuDpU1qA-a6qeE8Eb2RN3wJSWmOCxX049Oxn6aecxMdAW-z73YDGVEQ5i0aFkh21rPYTJzmZDraANVBLe9eKrFx2IXrwNS7x5ku8w0LUQQ1pWqDHECpPi3dafS3kBYfZE3A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
5ef84018f49cd75acc498bb881088fa8
PDF Text
Text
Platform Scoping
Introduction
Digitisation covers many different approaches to making physical objects and collections available
online. A simple form of digitisation has already taken place at Conway Hall with scans of the
artwork and pdf files of the Ethical Record made available to the public using our current website
platform, Wordpress. However digitisation within the GLAM 1 sector emphasises not only providing
access to high quality images, established as best practice, but also the provision of high quality
metadata. There are a number of different platforms cultural institutions have used in order to host
their digital collections; these are usually dictated by their own institutional
requirements/limitations:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The types of collection
The contents of the collection
Core audience/s
Cost
Internal technology infrastructure, actual or potential
Internal digitisation know-how
Our overall institutional requirements/limitations are as follows:
•
•
1
Requirements
o The collections are varied but are predominantly document based and are a mix of
archival and library material
o The content of the library collections is somewhat wide-ranging but has particular
focus on philosophy, history, freethought, humanism and religion. Our archives are
dedicated to the processes and activities of the Conway Hall Ethical Society, The
Sunday Concert Programme and those of the National Secular Society
o Our digitisation pilot project (Architecture and Place) prospective audiences are
defined initially as members of the Conway Hall Ethical Society the general public,
locals, and architects and architecture students.
An audience we are more broadly interested in reaching with future projects
are researchers. Please note that neither of these lists are exhaustive.
Limitations
o As a charity we are required to be frugal and are therefore unlikely to invest in mass
digitisation projects or expensive licensing agreements
Unlike academic libraries and archives (which do a large amount of
digitisation) we do not have the human resources or capital funds to support
‘complete’ digital humanities level digitisation comprising of high quality
Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums
�o
o
images, html produced from fully transcribed texts encoded into TEI XML
with high level entity authority control
There is funding for initial development but it is not large and there will be limited
funds to maintain the platform going forward
There is one dedicated staff member with knowledge of digitisation but the majority
of IT support is external
Prior to deciding on which platform is most appropriate for your collections and audiences, a
decision can be made around whether to focus on assessing Open Source(OS) solutions &/or
consider proprietary software. Each option has its own pros and cons (see fig.1 below).
Proprietary
Open Source
Pros
Support, training, setup
easier, up-front notice of
changes
Extensible, cheaper, open
licensing, interoperable,
community support (people in
your situation giving advice
rather than call centre or sales
staff)
Cons
Ongoing and up-front costs,
locked in to vendor, not
extensible, slower updates or
bug fixes, over-selling of
features
Support, training, setup more
difficult
Figure 1
Open Source software allows you to try something to see if it fits without having to spend too much
money and it can help clarify some problems you might not know exist. OS has a community of
people in similar situations so you can ask for advice that will be relevant rather than receive a prescripted response. OS is more likely to be interoperable and have some way of getting your data out
into another system. OS usually has a lot more plugins to use compared to proprietary software and
there are usually more frequent releases compared to proprietary.
For Conway Hall we focussed on Open Source software alone predominantly because of the ongoing
licensing costs of proprietary software although other factors, such as open formats, interoperability
and active developer and user communities were also considered important.
Another decision that can be made before considering platforms is to assess whether an
independent platform will be of more benefit than a platform that integrates with our current
catalogue. Our cataloguing system, Heritage, does not offer the functionality to allow us to consider
it as an option for our digitisation platform.
Ultimately we want a platform that: is easy to use and re-configure; its features conform to best
practice; is stable; allows for us to create exhibitions with different items within the larger
collection/s and can scale up. As our collections are made up of a wide variety of media we need a
platform that is flexible and suited to supporting a number of formats.
�Functionality Requirements
The following functionality requirements were developed in a number of discussions between
Library and other Conway Hall staff and from research undertaken for this project. They include
required functionality as well as optional aspects.
Required
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ease of use
Handling of Entity Authority/controlled vocabularies
Metadata support, ingest and export facilities
Support (user and developer communities)
Support of learning resources and any online learning activities
Handling of external links
Cost
Search API(so that the digital collections are searchable from the Conway Hall website)
Full text searching (within PDFs especially)
OAI-PMH compliance 2
Persistent identifiers (URIs) 3 for digital objects
Support large format images , video, audio, pdf, word documents, ePub and so on
Create exhibitions
Optional
•
•
•
Citation export/social media shareability
Crowdsourcing functionality (e.g. transcription)
User contributed material, tags etc
Initial Platform Comparisons
There are a number of open source platforms that are used in the GLAM sector to digitise
collections. However, several of them we knew from the outset were unlikely to be good matches
for our requirements, due to difficulty of use or not being a good match for our collections, and thus
were not evaluated thoroughly against the functionality requirements outlined above. 4 These
included:
•
2
Institutional repositories such as:
o E Prints
o D Space
o Fedora
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvest is used to expose your metadata to aggregators and
other harvesters.
3
URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) that are persistent minimise link rot
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot).
4
These platform candidates were identified in the literature (see references at the end of document), a variety
of forums, and in email discussions with Conal Tuohy, a former colleague and independent consultant working
in the Digital Humanities sector with libraries and archives in Australia.
�o
Invenio
Institutional repositories are primarily intended to store and disseminate the research outputs
for academic and research institutions. They are predominantly text heavy and require
significant IT development and ongoing support. New York Public Libraries uses Fedora for part
of their digital collections but has spent substantial funds in supporting their creation and
developing tools to use them.
•
Greenstone
Greenstone is a digital library system developed in New Zealand at the University of Waikato in
cooperation with UNESCO. It has had a relatively wide uptake within communities connected to
non-profit organisations and NGOs who work with UNESCO. It is not particularly user friendly
and does not lend itself well to building exhibitions.
•
Kete
A community developed digital assets management system that currently has little support from
its previous developer/user groups and is not widely used outside of New Zealand.
•
Drupal
Drupal is an open source content management system that has a wide user base but does not
lend itself well to easy administration and is not recommended by a colleague who has used it.
•
XTF (eXtensible Text Framework)
Developed for the creation of text heavy collections and difficult to administer XTF is therefore
an unsuitable digital platform candidate for our mixed format collections.
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of open source content management systems; or of
digital asset management, digital library or digital archive platforms. Those considered were the
most well-known candidates or platforms we or colleagues had personal experience with using.
Another contender that is not open source that was included for preliminary consideration was
Google Cultural Institute. It was included as the recommendation of one of the Society’s trustees
and the CEO. Google Cultural Institute is used by many large, well known cultural heritage
institutions, such as the British Museum, to digitally expose their collections and exhibitions.
However, neither these institutions nor Google seem to promote these digital collections widely. The
focus, it appears, is on providing content to Google’s products, specifically Google Maps and Google
Now.
As Google Cultural Institute is not core to Google business there is a risk that development of the
product will be dropped, for example, such as that for Google Glass. In addition, Google Cultural
Institute provides limited analytics and there is some question around the copyright of metadata.
Given these limitations we will not be considering this Google product as the sole platform for our
digital collections and exhibitions but will consider it when creating a virtual tour through Conway
Hall and for specific exhibitions.
�Platform Evaluation
The following platforms are those that met an initial cursory appraisal and were subject to fuller
evaluation against the functionality requirements outlined above.
•
Omeka
Omeka is a content management system developed specifically for online digital collections and
was especially recommended as a suitable candidate for our digitisation projects. 5
•
AtoM (Access to Memory)
AtoM was primarily developed as an archival description system but has been used as a
digitisation platform and mentioned as a possibility on a UK archives email list.
•
Islandora
Islandora is a software framework for the management and discovery of digital assets and makes
use of Fedora, Drupal and other software applications.
Each candidate was assessed against the functionality requirements (see Appendix A for full
evaluation notes); a summary of this process can be seen below. Evaluation was undertaken through
some practical experience (Omeka only) but primarily through software documentation, evaluations
by others, comparison articles, and experience with collections built on the candidate platforms.
One disclaimer is that weightings given for each criterion are subjective and entirely bound by the
limits of the research undertaken.
5
“…Omeka is definitely the best product of that type that I know of. It has a decent sized user base and a
developer community with funding. So you can’t go too far wrong selecting it I think. It also has some
input/output mechanisms for migration if it ever comes to that,” Private email from Conal Tuohy, 19 January
2016.
�Platform Evaluation Summary
Platform
Omeka
https://omeka.org/
AtoM
https://www.access
tomemory.org/en/
Islandora
http://islandora.ca/
6
7
Description
CMS/web publishing
platform
Designed for digital
collection
dissemination
Pros
Ease of use
Exhibition functionality
Archival description
platform
Description standardscentric
Widely used within
archives
Edited via webpages
Does not support large
image formats
No exhibition functionality
Very easy to delete an
entire collection
Setting up collection from
scratch is time consuming
OCR functionality
Browser compatibility
tested
Version control
Can support mass
digitisation
Complicated to install,
configure and likely use
Likelihood we’d require a
hosted solution with
associated costs
Sustainability risk due to
dependence on other OS
software
No exhibition functionality
Digital repository
system
Cons
Metadata handling
Not able to support large
scale digitisation of texts to
a digital humanities level
http://neatline.org/about/
http://omeka.org/forums/topic/omeka-vs-drupal-why-might-one-use-omeka-instead#post-4950
Score
40
29
36
Notes
Includes Neatline 6 a suite of
plugins for Omeka to build
geotemporal
exhibits/narratives from your
digital collections
“items-in-a-narrative” 7
For archival description and
access but can be used by
libraries, museums etc
Multi-repository ‘union list’
accepting descriptions from
any contributing institutions –
could partner with
Bishopsgate?
Models and captures complex
relationships between digital
objects
Linux based
Documentation is developer
driven
�Conclusion
Evaluation was a difficult and lengthy process but Omeka came out ahead primarily because it is the
best fit for our needs within the limitations (of funding and staffing) we operate under.
The three candidates that were fully evaluated were, at various times, considered the strongest
contender: AtoM for its standards-focus and the clarity of the websites built with it; Islandora
because of its range of digitisation possibilities and conceptual model. Omeka however is very userfocussed (cultural heritage staff and end-user) and is therefore straightforward and easy to use. It
was developed with the creation of online exhibitions in mind which was one of our primary
considerations and it better matched our required criteria than any other candidate (33 vs. 27
[AtoM] vs. 27 [Islandora]).
Implementing Omeka will begin following signoff from the CEO.
�References
Das, Amiya. “Comparing Open Source Digital Library Software: Special Reference to DSpace, EPrint
and Greenstone.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and
Software Engineering 5(7): 70-3. Accessed November 25, 2015.
http://www.ijarcsse.com/docs/papers/Volume_5/7_July2015/V5I7-0132.pdf.
Kökörčený, Michal, and Bodnárová, Agáta. “Comparison of Digital Libraries Systems.” Paper
presented at the 9th WSEAS International Conference on Data Networks, Communications,
Computers, Faro, Portugal, November 3-5, 2010.
http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2010/Faro/DNCOCO/DNCOCO-16.pdf
Pirounakis, George, and Nikolaidou, Mara. “Comparing Open Source Digital Library Software.”
Accessed November 25, 2015. http://www.thailibrary.in.th/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/Comparing-Open-Source-Digital-Library-Software.pdf
�Appendix A: Platform Full Evaluation
0 = N/A
1 = Poor match
2 = match
3 = good match
Platforms
Omeka
Notes
AtoM
Notes
Islandora
Notes
1
The majority of articles, evaluations etc
were from a developer/IT perspective
with no mention of ease of use. Set up is
not straightforward - requires quite a bit
of time therefore greater cost.
Required
Ease of use
2
Handling of
controlled
vocabularies and
entitiy authority
Metadata standard
support and
ingest/export
facilities
Evaluated through presentations and own
testing of platform.
2
Evaluated from presentations.
2
Can use some controlled vocabularies (via
plugins); can set up own controlled
vocabs.
3
Provides strict entity authority,
taxonomies
2
Entity Solution Pack; you are able to
provide controlled vocabs or external
links but not straightforward to
implement
1
Dublin Core but other metadata standards
available via plugins. Import via CSV, OAIPMH. Export via Omeka and METS XML,
other formats
3
ICA description standards. RAD,
DCMI, MODS. Batch import via CSV;
import/export using EAD XML
3
Any metadata schema supported; RDF
support for any XML standard. Batch
metadata ingest; export via XML
�Support (active
user and developer
communities)
3
Very active user and developer
communities. At least some developers
available in UK/EU
User support extensive; at least a few
developers in the UK
3
Supported - lesson plans and interactive
resources (somewhat)
3
2
Support of learning
resources and any
online learning
activities
3
3
Active user and developer communities
2
Not explicitly stated but additional
files are fine. Interactive resources
not mentioned (therefore unlikely)
2
Not explicitly stated but can add files and
set up relationship between learning
resources and source files (interactive
resource support not mentioned)
Hyperlink support
2
Hyperlink support but only in fields
that are uncontrolled
2
hyperlink support (couldn't find
references on how easy it is to do or
where you are able to put them)
OS - configuration and maintenance costs
only
2
OS - configuration and maintenance
costs only
1
Given the complexity of the bundled
platform development costs likely to be
pricey (from our perspective)
Handling of
external links
Cost 8
8
To be a good match (a 3) the software would not require any developer time to implement and configure.
�OAI-PMH
compliance
3
OAI-PMH repository plugin
3
OAI-PMH repository plugin. Requires
authentication
3
Islandora OAI module
3
REST API
2
Elasticsearch query through REST API
1
Islandora REST API is in development but
is focussed on Solr
3
PDFText plugin allows for searching within
pdfs. No full-text searching within ePub
format
3
PDF full text search available. Not
available for ePub.
3
PDF full text search available. Unclear for
ePub.
2
CoolURIs + github plugin
(ArkAndNoid4Omeka)
1
Could find no reference within AtoM
documentation or in use apart from
one example that uses handle.net
2
Can implement external resource
identifiers services
Search API
Full text searching
(within PDFs
especially)
Persistent
identifiers for
digital objects
(URIs)
�Support large
format images,
video, audio, pdf,
epub, word
documents and
other common
formats
Create exhibitions
3
3
Sum:
Optional
Citation export and
social media
shareability
Crowdsourcing
functionality
(transcription)
9
Large images supported through IIIF
support/universal viewer (requires an IIIF
server). ePub supported
Exhibitions functionality built in
33
1
Doesn't seem to support large format
images, no zoom function. No IIIF
support. No ePub support.
3
IIIF support available. Does support wide
range of formats including TIFF. Possibly
TEI?
0
(From forum comment, Jan 2016: At
this time, however, we do not know
of anyone who is seriously
considering sponsoring the
development of such a module) 9
1
Likelihood all exhibitions would need to
be built in Drupal - does not appear to be
a dedicated exhibition module.
27
2
Citation export through Zotero (through
COinS); could find no support for
Endnote/Bibtex export. Social media
sharing plugin available
3
Scripto (transciption) plugin.
27
1
Export to Endnote/Bibtex; does not
export to Zotero. Doesn't seem to
have social media sharing
functionality
3
Citation export to Endnote, Bibtex and
Zotero. Social media sharing available
0
Could find no reference to this
functionality
3
Crowdsourcing transcription possible
through Islandora webform
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ica-atom-users/3O0_yV3wLIU
�User contributed
material, tags, etc
2
Total:
40
Plugins for user contribution of a variety of
types. Commenting allowed but only
MyOmeka has tagging. Poster plugin
1
29
Registered user groups may tag
3
36
User contributed content possible as is
tagging
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Digitisation Working Documents and Reports
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of documents created during the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of digitisation projects of the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Language
A language of the resource
English
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Platform scoping for Conway Hall
Description
An account of the resource
A platform scoping document for the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Callaghan, Samantha
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Software
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work by <span>Conway Hall Ethical Society</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BD-DD0002
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Administration
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Platform scoping
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PDF Text
Text
Conway Hall Digital Collections Omeka.net Metadata Guide
Architecture and Place
On the right hand side of the ‘add item’ screen there is a drop down menu for ‘collections’ – each
item can only belong to one collection. Set this to ‘Architecture and Place’.
Dublin Core Metadata
The table below defines the DC fields and their usage for the Architecture and Place project. Please
note that not all fields are required for this project and so will remain unpopulated. This may not
hold true for future projects.
Those fields highlighted must have content.
Title
Description
Creator
Contributor
Date
A name given to a resource.
First word and proper nouns capitalised only.
Take from description where appropriate. For
letters entitle item as "Letter from XXX to YYY,
date". Do not use full stop.
An account of the resource.
Full text description of contents and context of
resource. Use full stop at the end of sentences.
An entity primarily responsible for making the
resource.
Use for authors, artists, architects, draftspeople,
principle illustrators and so on.
Format for personal names is Last Name, First
Name - LC Names may include dates in brackets
following first name and other disambiguation
information.
If author unknown, use ‘Unknown’.
[LC Names is the entity authority assigned to this
field]
An entity responsible for making contributions to
the resource.
Use for editors, foreword writers, contributory
illustrators and so on. Format for personal
names is Last Name, First Name - LC Names may
include dates in brackets following first name
and other disambiguation information.
[LC Names is the entity authority assigned to this
field]
A point or period of time associated with an
event in the lifecycle of the resource.
In this case we are capturing the year of original
creation of the item. Where date is unknown use
‘n.d.’
�Publisher
Subject
Rights
Identifier
[Date of digitisation will be derived from
collection creation date unless otherwise noted].
An entity responsible for making the resource
available.
For digitised material that was previously
published use the original publisher if known; if
unknown, use s.n.
For digitised material that we believe to have
been unpublished, leave field blank as we cannot
be 100% certain that item was unpublished.
For born digital material being made available to
the public for the first time the publisher is
'Conway Hall Ethical Society'.
The topic of the resource.
LC Subject Headings is an assigned controlled
vocabulary for this field. Use high level
description in this field. See also Tagging below.
Information about rights held in and over the
resource.
The rights statements used for this project
include:
Public Domain - see item #2, South Place Chapel
Postcard, as an example.
Creative Commons licences used for our Society
derived material - currently for texts and audio
we are using a BY-NC-ND licence (attribution,
noncommercial and non-derivative use allowed)
see item #9 Souvenirs of South Place Ethical
Society as an example. For images, it will be a
BY-NC-SA licence (attribution, noncommercial
and derivative use allowed under similar licence
for derivative works).
Orphan works - licence will be according to that
imposed by the IPO. As of the 16/8/16 we have
no examples of these.
Copyright - see item #39 for an example. Use
copyright symbol, names of copyright holders
and include statement 'Digitised with their kind
permission.'
For rights statements that include links be sure
to add and edit these in the HTML view.
An unambiguous reference to the resource within
a given context.
For archival items give the archival finding aid
reference for the item, e.g. SPES/6/4/17 or
OP31A.
For library items give the dewey number and in a
seperate identifier field the accession number.
Born digital items are assigned a number from a
running sequence for each project kept in an
Excel spreadsheet.
�Format
Type
Language
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions
of the resource.
Use to describe the format of the digitised item.
The MIME type to use can be found from this list
based on the file/s extension. E.g. image/jpeg
for files with the extension .jpg. Please note, the
most common formats (jpg, pdf, mp3) have been
added as a controlled vocabulary for this field.
Original format description is captured in the
Item Type Metadata tab.
The nature or genre of the resource.
Match type to ‘Item Type Metadata’ tab type
where possible. If an image, use two type fields,
image and still image. For any video, do the
same, image and moving image.
A language of the resource.
Only required for items that are text based or
audio based. The controlled vocabulary used for
this field is the MARC List for Languages.
Fields not used
There are 3 fields that are restricted from use for this project.
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the
spatial applicability of the resource, or the
jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant.
Relation
A related resource.
Source
The resource from which the described resource
is derived.
It is thought that the time taken to create and assign terms for the field 'Coverage' in this instance
would not be worthwhile since it is unlikely that the terms created here would be used elsewhere in
future collections.
Coverage
Both ‘Relation’ and ‘Source’ are consistently misapplied in digitisation projects and there seems to
be no best practice in their use. As they were unlikely to be used for the Architecture and Place
project, given its content, we chose to not to use them at this time.
Item Type Metadata
The ‘Item Type Metadata’ tab is similar to, but expands on, the content in the DC field ‘type.’ There
are currently 16 types from which one must be chosen for each item. The most common ones that
will be used for this project are ‘Text’ and ‘Still Image.’
•
Text has 2 elements:
o Text – Any textual data included in the document
At this point we are not including a transcription of the text here. Where the
file added to the record is a PDF, there is no need as the PDF will include
OCR.
o Original Format - The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and
additional data
�•
Formats used so far are: Book, Pamphlet, Ephemera (for letters).
Still Image has 2 elements also:
o Original Format - The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and
additional data
Formats used so far are: Photo, Paper.
o Physical Dimensions - The actual physical size of the original image
This element is unused as not all the items in this project have this
information readily available. It is possible this may change in the future.
Tagging
Tags in Omeka.net can be added through the Tags tab when creating an item. These can be used for
more granular description of topics covered or touched on by the item. Look at the tag menu at the
left hand side of the screen to see what tags have already been created to ensure consistency when
tagging.
For both the DC Subject field and the Tagging tab do not embark on filling these with content until
you've been brought up to speed by Olwen and Sam.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Digitisation Working Documents and Reports
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of documents created during the planning, implementation and evaluation stages of digitisation projects of the Humanist Library and Archives, Conway Hall.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Humanist Library and Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Language
A language of the resource
English
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Conway Hall digital collections metadata guide
Description
An account of the resource
A guide to creating Dublin Core metadata for digital collections created on Omeka.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Callaghan, Samantha
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Subject
The topic of the resource
Digitization
Dublin Core
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work by <span>Conway Hall Ethical Society</span> is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BD-DD0001
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Administration
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Metadata