The African Elephant: A digital collection of anatomical sketches as part of the University of Pretoria's Institutional Repository – a case study

Although several collections have been digitized and made available in the University of Pretoria's Institutional Repository, a pilot study has not been done to measure the project management and workflow. The collections available in the repository at the time of this project were all long‐term projects. There was a need to identify a project small enough to conform to normal project management requirements to use as an example to establish the planning and workflow of future projects. The purpose of this study is to determine the outcome and quality of the final web‐ready institutional repository product against specific digitization project goals.

A collection of anatomical sketches in the custody of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Department of Anatomy and Physiology was identified as a possible collection that could comply with the above criteria. The different sketches in the Elephant collection could be digitized in phases, making it an ideal project for future comparison. In each phase a number of tasks were identified which the various role players should complete during the workflow process. Each phase would be compared to the previous completed phases to measure the outcomes and progress made in quality and time. Through successful interaction and collaboration between the Library and the Department of Anatomy and Physiology during the digitization process, valuable tacit knowledge could be preserved for future use in the field of Veterinary Science.

The completed project delivered on key areas such as the electronic availability of the collection through metadata description. Basic preservation of the physical collection was undertaken as necessary and the physical as well as the digital collections were archived for future use. The conclusion will describe the lessons learned and how it can be applied in future projects to the advantage of the institution.

The paper provides a very useful case study for other academic libraries that want to develop their own digital collections.

This paper offers practical help to libraries starting with digitization. It supplies valuable information for project management, planning of workflow and estimate time frames for completing a specific task in the digitization process.