Selection Guidelines

The purpose of this document is to outline the selection criteria for the National Digital Forum website and to provide guidance to those wishing to suggest resources for inclusion on the site.

The National Digital Forum site is a centralised source for information on creating, delivering and preserving digital cultural heritage materials. The site will enable cultural heritage professionals to

• share information and experiences
• find authoritative resources and tools
• develop and improve their processes.

The NDF site aims to be relevant to anyone working in or interested in New Zealand’s cultural heritage and the opportunities presented by new information and communication technologies. Resources selected for inclusion in the NDF site may also be of interest to a wider audience.

If you have suggestions for content that could be included on the NDF site, please contact us. You should provide the following information:

• Title of resource
• Creator and/or owner of resource
• Resource type (see the list under Content [link to Content] below)
• Description (max. 30 words)
• URL
• Any special software required (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDFs).

If the resource is not yet publicly available online, you may need to provide details of:

• Format
• Availability
• Contact details for the creator/owner of the resource.

The website coordinator will compile a list of recommended resources, and forward this to the NDF Editorial Committee for their consideration. The committee includes representatives from a range of organisations across the cultural heritage sector.

The major criteria governing selection of resources are that the information presented

• relates to processes for delivering digital cultural heritage content (creation, delivery, and preservation), and
• has a New Zealand focus or is directly relevant to New Zealand organisation undertaking this type of work.

The following factors will also be considered when selecting material for inclusion in the NDF site:

Accessibility: Selected resources should be easily accessible to users. Resources which require special hardware or software should be avoided.

Accuracy: Selected resources should be accurate and contain high quality information. Content should be free from typographical and grammatical errors.

Authority: Selected resources should be produced by organisations with demonstrated expertise.

Availability: Selection of resources that are not readily available through other means is encouraged.

Coverage: Selected resources may be specifically concerned with digitisation, or may relate to selected topics on the general management of digital information (e.g. metadata, preservation). Resources that give good depth of coverage to issues are preferred.

Currency: To maintain the currency of the site, selected resources should be relatively recent, or subject to regular updates.

Language: Resources in English and/or te Māori may be selected.

Representation: Selected resources should reflect the range of organisations across the cultural heritage sector and the diversity of viewpoints in the digitisation community. They should be particularly relevant to New Zealand, but informed by international developments.

Reliability: When selecting websites or web-based content, the ongoing maintenance of the site should be considered.

The following resource types have been identified for inclusion on the site.

News: Notices of upcoming events, funding opportunities for individuals or organisations, and any announcements of interest to NDF members.

Register of Digitisation Initiatives: A database of organisations and digitisation initiatives that can be searched, browsed and added to.

Policies and guidelines: Resources outlining organisational approaches to digital cultural heritage, which may include principles, goals and objectives, and ‘best practice’ guidelines relating to any aspect of processes for delivering cultural heritage digital content.

Technical and metadata standards: International and national standards documents and specifications for and information about file formats widely in use.

Articles and presentations: Published and unpublished articles, papers or presentations on any aspect of digitised or digital cultural heritage.

Training and development: Information about New Zealand and international training courses, as well as online training modules, and suggested professional journals.

Mailing lists: Pointers to active lists likely to be of interest to NDF members.

Links: Current links to stable and authoritative websites or portals.

Hot topics: Summary information on topics of high relevance to the NDF will be commissioned for the website. No content in this category is yet available, but some suggested topics likely to appear in the near future are

• Intellectual property rights
• Preservation
• Metadata.

Toolkit: Tools for practical use on digitisation projects, e.g. template documents, calculation tools for file size, storage, etc.