DCDC21: Case studies: Digital solutions to accessibility
Channel: ResearchLibrariesUK
Date: 2021-07-05

DCDC stands for Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities. It is a cross-sectoral conference, hosted by The National Archives, RLUK and Jisc, that brings together the GLAMA sectors (galleries, libraries, archives, museums and academia) to shine a light on our shared experiences, innovations, interests and concerns. The DCDC21 Conference explored how crisis can act as a catalyst for change within libraries, archives, museums, and cultural organisations. https://dcdcconference.com/

Travelling Plants: creating a volunteer driven TEI XML project model for making archives accessible during a world pandemic
Kiri Ross-Jones, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Dustin Frazier Wood, University of Roehampton, Kate Teltscher,  University of Roehampton

In this workshop, we will introduce a model we have created for the sector, which uses volunteer-driven, remote methods to transcribe and research collections, and makes them easily shareable and accessible using TEI-XML encoding. Working with the University of Roehampton and University of the Third Age in our Travelling Plants Project, the Archives Team at Kew Gardens have created a methodology that can be managed by archivists with little experience of textual encoding or time! We will share protocols, methodologies, and examine successes and failures. We hope to inspire other special collections to use this model and will sign-post resources.

Starting with solutions: how we made our collections systems and assets work harder
Guy Baxter, Sharon Maxwell, and Joe Vaughan, University of Reading

The University of Reading’s Museums and Collections started 2020 with a digital infrastructure that was failing to fulfil its potential to deliver access, learning and research. Strategy and policy were underdeveloped, systems disjointed and skills untested. The pathways for building on the success of its social media engagement and the massive recent progress on digitisation were obscured. The year ended with new and improved digital tools and services, developed rapidly and at low cost in response to user needs; highly focussed co-ordination of digital strategy; and a workforce tackling complex digital projects with enthusiasm. Apart from the pandemic, what happened?