Call for participation in Cost Assessment working group, part of DLF Assessment Interest Group
Joyce Chapman
This email is an invitation to participate in the DLF Assessment Interest Group’s (DLF AIG) working group on Cost Assessment in 2016. There is more information about the group below, but first a few words about participating in DLF AIG.
The only requirement for participation in a DLF AIG working group is a willingness to dig in and devote a small part of your time contributing to the tools, methods, and body of knowledge on digital library assessment. Attendance at the DLF forum is not a requirement for participation in any of the working groups. Additionally, if your institution is not a DLF member, you can still participate.
What the Cost Assessment working group has done so far
Over the past two years, this working group has built a beta version of a Digitization Cost Calculator, which aggregates available data on the time it takes to perform various activities associated with library digitization, and estimates costs. We also elicited community feedback and drafted best practices and guidelines for the collection of time data for various digitization processes. Lastly, we used community feedback to design a new version of the Digitization Cost Calculator; however, we can't build it until we have a lot more data!
Goals for 2016
We need data! The calculator cannot move forward unless we get data in a number of categories for which we currently have none. We've decided to focus our work this year around obtaining data and trying to complete the calculator project, rather than expanding work around cost assessment any further. While open calls for data contributions have produced about a dozen contributions, we still have a long way to go. We need to:
Strategize about how to best get more data (for example, we might consider writing a grant)
Conduct outreach to organizations, asking if they can contribute existing data
Find partners who are willing to collect new data specifically for the calculator
How can you participate?
Respond to me by email by next Friday (April 1) if you are interested in --
1. Joining this group and helping solicit data for the calculator
2. Contributing time data that you already have
3. Collecting some data in your library to contribute to the calculator this year.
In your email, let me know how you are interested in getting involved. If you join the group, we will probably touch base via a conference call at least once a month, and more during the initial strategizing phase. Otherwise, we will communicate via email.
For questions about the larger DLF Assessment Interest Group, contact the DLF AIG co-leaders, Joyce Chapman joyce....@duke.edu and Santi Thompson satho...@uh.edu.
Thank you for participating in the DLF AIG!
Joyce Chapman
Coordinator, Cost Assessment Working Group
Assessment Coordinator
Duke University Libraries