Upgrade of Kew heritage science and digitisation facilities and equipment - digitisation
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Botanic Gardens
Department Name: Science Directorate Office
Abstract
Upgrade of Kew heritage science and digitisation facilities and equipment - digitisation
The project provides modern, high specification digitisation equipment for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The equipment requested comprises three scanners and two digital cameras for the digitisation of Kew's Library, Art & Archives and Economic Botany Collections, replacing equipment which can no longer deliver the required quality and reliability to support a rapidly expanding digitisation programme.
Two A2 scanners will facilitate the digitisation of library materials and selected artworks and archives. A table-top scanner will allow us to enhance our quick image capture scanning service for readers during their visit.
The high-spec digital camera system is required for the digitisation of artworks and more fragile archive materials, while the second digital camera will enable the 3D object photography required by the Economic Botany Collection.
The project will help Kew to achieve two major objectives of its new Corporate Strategy (to be published in early 2021), to provide care and access to and to digitise 100% of its unrivalled collections, widening access and reducing handling and wear and tear on the items themselves. Focussing on Library, Art, Archives and Economic Botany Collections, the project aligns with Kew's arts and humanities research priorities, while being responsive to those of external researchers.
The last decade has seen a significant range of AHRC-funded research at Kew, generated both by staff and through collaboration with universities. This work, in the form of both major research projects and collaborative doctoral students, depends on the ability to rapidly digitise paper-based works and objects to a high-standard. Our new research strategy, currently under development, both emphasizes the role of digitisation in supporting research, and highlights interdisciplinary arts and humanities research as areas of active development at Kew.
Digitisation also underpins our participation in collaborative projects with other institutions, for example with regard to distributed online collections, and our work with the commercial sector, for example in publishing, licensing and the development of online media.
The project is expected to be completed by March 2021.
The project provides modern, high specification digitisation equipment for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The equipment requested comprises three scanners and two digital cameras for the digitisation of Kew's Library, Art & Archives and Economic Botany Collections, replacing equipment which can no longer deliver the required quality and reliability to support a rapidly expanding digitisation programme.
Two A2 scanners will facilitate the digitisation of library materials and selected artworks and archives. A table-top scanner will allow us to enhance our quick image capture scanning service for readers during their visit.
The high-spec digital camera system is required for the digitisation of artworks and more fragile archive materials, while the second digital camera will enable the 3D object photography required by the Economic Botany Collection.
The project will help Kew to achieve two major objectives of its new Corporate Strategy (to be published in early 2021), to provide care and access to and to digitise 100% of its unrivalled collections, widening access and reducing handling and wear and tear on the items themselves. Focussing on Library, Art, Archives and Economic Botany Collections, the project aligns with Kew's arts and humanities research priorities, while being responsive to those of external researchers.
The last decade has seen a significant range of AHRC-funded research at Kew, generated both by staff and through collaboration with universities. This work, in the form of both major research projects and collaborative doctoral students, depends on the ability to rapidly digitise paper-based works and objects to a high-standard. Our new research strategy, currently under development, both emphasizes the role of digitisation in supporting research, and highlights interdisciplinary arts and humanities research as areas of active development at Kew.
Digitisation also underpins our participation in collaborative projects with other institutions, for example with regard to distributed online collections, and our work with the commercial sector, for example in publishing, licensing and the development of online media.
The project is expected to be completed by March 2021.
Organisations
Publications
| Title | The Role of Kew's Orchid Illustrations and the Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia Project |
| Description | The digitisation equipment which this grant funded was used to contribute images to the Useful Plants and Fungi of Columbia project, which this exhibition was created to showcase, highlighting the beauty and diversity of Colombian plants. Books and illustrations from Kew collections have been used. The exhibition is on view in the Kew Library and Archives Reading Room from 17 February to 28 April 2022. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Opportunities for impact have been limited: the exhibition is viewable by visitors to the Library and Archives Reading Room, Tuesdays-Thursday, 10-4. Currently visits are by appointment only to ensure Covid-19 safe working and to date 11 external researchers have had an opportunity of viewing the exhibition. The aim is to ease restrictions from April, providing this is agreed by Kew Health & Safety staff. |
| Description | The significant achievements of the award include the deployment of new, up-to-date scanning equipment and cameras, and enhanced support for them. This equipment is being used to make digital versions of Kew collections, making it easier for us to share collections with researchers and the general public, wherever they are located and reducing in some instances the need for researchers to travel to Kew to view material. For example, following deployment of the equipment, we recruited a team of volunteer digitisers to help us contribute content to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, enabling this material to be accessed free of charge by anyone with access to the Internet. The modern equipment and associated software has improved work-flows, leading to greater efficiencies in staff time and resources. |
| Exploitation Route | Digitised collections can be used by researchers in a range of disciplines from botany, plant sciences and biological sciences to arts and humanities disciplines such as history, social sciences, art history, and digital and environmental humanities. This equipment will help Kew to increase awareness of our collections through their digitisation by as broad a range of constituents as possible, although it should be noted that challenges to achieving further progress include the lack of resources to employ digitisation staff and the difficulty of getting support for digitisation from funders. |
| Sectors | Environment Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Other |
| URL | https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ |
| Description | 8 personnel have been trained in using the scanning equipment 6,000 digital surrogates from published works, created using the equipment, have been added to the Biodiversity Heritage Library Equipment will be used in parallel with the implementation of cataloguing of illustrations as part of the Integrated Collections Management System |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Open Day for Colplanta project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Open Day on 26 October 2021 was to showcase the ColPlantA resource (https://colplanta.org/) which features images digitised with the equipment funded through this grant to invited VIPs from the Humboldt Institute in Colombia. ColPlantA is an expert-driven and open access online portal that provides information on Colombian plants and their uses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://colplanta.org/ |