Readers note that this is a scholarly and well‐researched collection of short contributions by an international set of well‐respected professionals mostly emanating from the “memory institutions”. It is teeming with examples of large scale digitisation projects, mostly drawn from the UK and covering not just libraries but also archives and museums. Have no doubt that this is a quality publication.
There is a caveat. Read the back cover and learn that this is “an authoritative examination of current issues, themes and techniques on the use of digital collections..”. It is. Read the title and learn that the book is about “Evaluating and measuring the value, use and impact of digital collections”. It is not – at least not in any obvious sense. I can sense the editor struggling with a collective title – for me, the simpler “The value, use and impact of digital collections” would have reflected the content much more accurately – but enough of splitting hairs.
By engaging with the whole book, two essential and somewhat nebulous facets are developed and which have made the explosion of digitisation projects worthwhile – value and impact. If there are profound qualitative measures embedded within these, in terms of value, digital collections should be compelling and of high quality, visible and accessible to a very wide audience, support institutional objectives and therefore provide local benefit first and foremost, be sustainable long‐term and in many circumstances provide a long‐term means of preservation and curation. In terms of impact they must not only serve a known audience but seek new users, be user‐centric and provide a level of audience massification impossible with physical counterparts.
There are some gaps. The book tries to be even‐handed between the different “memory” sectors and in the academic versus public institutional split. Inevitably many of the largest projects are academically‐orientated and these are reflected accordingly. We find out early on that in 2007‐2008, 40 per cent of information expenditure by British universities was on electronic content. From an academic library viewpoint, sadly there is almost no reference to the value of digital journal collections and not much more relating to e‐books, let alone attempts at evaluating the huge sums spent annually by UK universities on electronic information. SCONUL figures for 2009‐2010 suggest this proportion was nearer 66 per cent with nearly £160 million compared to almost £80 million on printed books and journals. What value do universities realise from that investment? Does the fact that University A holds twice as many e‐journals as University B make it twice as successful in its research outputs? Does the fact that University C has far more e‐books than University D make its library resources more satisfying for its student population? You will not find quick answers to those questions here – nor a single list of criteria for evaluating and measuring those.
What you will find is a varied set of chapters regarding digital collections, sensibly arranged and each presenting at least one contextual golden nugget. Collectively that makes this volume well worth reading.
