The document discusses the significance of digital open archives, highlighting increased access to information through technology and user behavior changes. It details metrics from the Amsterdam City Archive, revealing a substantial increase in online visitors and digitization efforts that are financially supported by consumers. The text emphasizes the need for new business models and methods to measure social impact in the evolving digital landscape.

1. Measuring benefits of
digital open archives
Trilce Navarrete
ECA | BCN | 2014

3. Motivation
• Archives serve for memory | accountability
• Universal right to information | past | future
• Digital distribution can exponentially increase access
• Technology and user behavior continue to change
• Digital access | use metrics are being developed

4. The Netherlands
• How much has been digitized?
• ENUMERATE 2013:
• (via DEN)

5. Sectors merge online

6. The Netherlands
• Dissemination of collections archives

7. The Netherlands
• Dissemination of collections

8. The user
• What do we know of the user?

9. The Amsterdam City Archive
• Online visitors: 400% increase in 10+ years

10. The Amsterdam City Archive
• Buyers: 65% man | 35% woman | 9% Amsterdam

11. The Amsterdam City Archive
• Income from weekly scan sales

12. The Amsterdam City Archive
• Workflow: digitization of 15,000 objects per week
(1.5 million per year)
• Low-resolution and limited metadata
• Annual budget of ca. €200,000 (of which ca.
€130,000 is paid for by consumers)
• Selection is made with an information policy and by
digitization on demand.
• Collection information (11m scans online) is fully
available (on-site for free).

13. The Amsterdam City Archive
• Onsite visitors have not decreased
• In 2013:
• 22,455 orders (963 users)
• 11,430 paid orders (329 users)
• 823,020 scans viewed (50% extern IP address)
• 900,000 website visits (300,000 image bank)

14. Other models
• “Many users might not be able to express
information needs for a cultural heritage artifact in a
query” Stiller, 2012.
• Institutions have explored alternative distribution
channels (social media | portals | wikipedia)
• What is the impact?

15. The Wikipedia archive
• LABS wikimedia foundation tools

16. The Wikipedia archive
• LABS wikimedia foundation tools

17. Opening up the archives
• Heritage content contains jewels that need to
be ‘found’ | repositioned
• Content developed by the crowd reinforces
the long tail effect (few images used often)
• Wikipedian in residence may serve to increase
content pool |access new materials
• New business models are required to reflect
the digital society

18. Future research
• New methods to measure access | use
• Data set collection | availability | analysis
• Value proposition based on social impact
• Long-term efforts on a global net | geographic
and financial implications

19. Thank you !
• trilce.navarrete@gmail.com
• @trilcenavarrete