[Metadatalibrarians] Participate in the Digitization Cost Calculator's "Day of Data" collection, part II!

[Chrissy Rissmeyer]

Call for participation in data collection for the Digitization Cost
Calculator

DAY OF DATA II

July: Submit one day of data!

Background

Digitization is a costly business -- estimating expenses associated with a
given digitization project or for a grant application can feel disconnected
from the reality of staffing, timelines, and true project costs. The
Digital Library Federation’s Assessment Interest Group has developed a
Digitization
Cost Calculator <http://dashboard.diglib.org> to help with digitization
project planning by using contributed data to produce average estimates of
costs and time for various aspects of the digitization process. Last
summer’s Day of Data was amazing, but we still need your help!

Call to action

The calculator needs more data contributions to be truly robust. We know
that data is difficult to collect, so we are asking you to collect a single
day of data about the time it takes to perform activities and contribute it
to the calculator, in the month of July. You can choose one or more of
the fields
for which the calculator provides data
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/17jTJmCzKsa83BMdlgKj239Shqcbglq7I4EfxJIWWDQo/edit>.
Please help us improve the calculator by signing up for the second Day of
Data <https://duke.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0dqZNcnPqDEM5lH>!

Sign up here to collect data for just one day in July

<https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0dqZNcnPqDEM5lH>

We would like more contributions in every field of the calculator (see the
signup form above for a list of all contribution areas). However, some areas
in which more contributions are vital are pointed out below:

Activity

Number of current contributions

Disbinding

0

Background removal

1

Stitching

1

Rebinding

0

Refastening

0

Desorting

1

Areas in which more contributions are highly desired:

Activity

Number of current contributions

Film/transparency scanner, image capture data

3

Sheet feeder scanner, image capture data

3

Cradle scanner, image capture data

2

Rights review

2

Sorting material into items

2

Fastener removal

3

Quality control, level 2

2

Image clean up / dust removal

2


FAQ:

What is Day of Data? Day of data is a low barrier, low time commitment way
to contribute the critical pieces of missing data needed to move this
important project forward. Because contributors are only asked to commit to
tracking and submitting digitization data for one day in the month of June,
a greater number of institutions are able to add their data to the creation
of this community-driven tool.

What will I need to do? You will commit to timing yourself, staff, or
student as you/they perform digitization processes during a single day (or
more if you like! More is better for us :). The areas in which you can
contribute time data include image capture, descriptive metadata creation,
quality control, various preparation processes such as condition review,
rebinding, formatting, and various post-processing processes such as
alignment/rotation, image cropping, and stitching.

Do I have to give you salary/benefits data? No! You only give us time data.
“Costs” are estimated using salary/benefits data that people enter when
using the calculator. The calculator does not track or store cost data
anywhere.

What if we don’t perform all of the tasks mentioned, or can only track
tasks for a few hours? That’s fine because the calculations are broken down
by task – you only submit data for the specific tasks that you choose.
Contributing whatever pieces of your process that are trackable in whatever
increments you can track them in, is still incredibly helpful! You can also
submit data from more than a single day.

When will I need to do it? Pick any day or time before the end of July that
works for you! Please submit your data by July 31, when the working group
will begin reviewing and processing it.

What if we track(ed) time data for process X and process Y smushed together
in one number? Unfortunately, we cannot use data that combines multiple
processes -- your time data contributions will have to be separate for each
process you contribute data for. Alternatively, you can collect sample data
for one of the processes and then estimate the aggregate data out into
pieces.

How will my institution benefit? You will have contributed to the creation
of a freely-available tool (the Digitization Cost Calculator) that allows
users to input their salary and benefits data, the amount of material being
digitized, select which processes they will be undertaking, and then
outputs cost and time data based on all aggregate contributed data. This
tool will help many organizations in planning future projects and in
articulating the true costs of digitization projects.

Will the information I contribute be associated with my institution?  Sort
of. The data you submit will be aggregated by the calculator with all other
data submissions and displayed as part of an average on the results screen
when people use the calculator. No individual institution’s information
will be discernible in the calculator. However, individual institutional
data will be shown on the Notes About Data
<http://statelibrarync.org/plstats/data-notes.php> page, another part of
the Digitization Cost Calculator website. This allows calculator users to
get a feel for the wide variation in time and in practice from institution
to institution and project to project. Seeing the data apart from the
aggregate average can also be helpful if a user feels their institution is
more similar to one or more other institutions in the list, and allows them
to calculate custom time estimates.

What if I have some historical digitization data to contribute now? Great,
we’d love to have your historical data! Contributions are accepted on an
ongoing basis, but please try to contribute whatever you can by the end of
July 2017 so we can get the new calculator up and running!

How do I contribute historical data now? You can use the data submission
form <https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3OtqSEAbpl2QDl3>, or send an
email to joyce.chapman at duke.edu, subject line Cost Calculator.

What if my historical data is in a different form than the cost calculator
data?  That’s fine! Email  joyce.chapman at duke.edu, and we will help migrate
the data into the right format.

What if we track(ed) only a part of the data you are looking for in our
digitization workflow? That’s fine, and still very valuable. You can
contribute just one piece of data -- you don’t have to have all the fields
represented in the calculator.

How do I sign up to be a contributor? Use this short form
<https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0dqZNcnPqDEM5lH>. We’ll follow-up
with detailed instructions and by email in June.

I have more questions! Please feel free to contact Joyce Chapman with any
additional questions about the project, being a contributor, or using the
calculator: joyce.chapman at duke.edu, 919-660-5889.