Some financial assistance is available for museum personnel interested in
taking "Basics and Beyond" online
training courses. The three-week courses will begin in January, but grant
deadlines are fast approaching. October
15 is the Illinois Humanities Council technical assistance grant deadline
for courses in January and February. The
Illinois Association of Museums also offers technology grants to museums,
with a December 1 deadline. Museums in
other states may find funding though their humanities councils or state
museum associations.

The online courses will cover benefits and costs of digitization projects;
issues involved in designing, setting goals, and
evaluating digitization projects; planning issues, including budgeting,
work flow, copyright, storage, delivery, and preservation;
Metadata standards and creation; selection of materials to digitize;
evaluation, selection, and purchasing digitization
equipment; determining the best way to digitize collections and make them
accessible to their target audience; and
basic scanning and image manipulation skills. The registration fee for the
courses is $200.

Using WebCT courseware, the asynchronous courses will allow participants to
contribute to online discussions, complete
collaborative assignments, and solve real world digitization problems right
from their own computers. The courses are sponsored
by the Illinois Digitization Institution of the University of Illinois
Library, the Illinois State Library, and the Illinois Heritage
Association. They are partially funded by a National Leadership Grant from
the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

In addition to these courses, several on site courses will be held around
Illinois during 2004 and 2005 on the basics of
digitization.  "Online plus" courses will offer further opportunities for
participants to combine the online courses with two days
of hands-on training at the University of Illinois with digitization experts.

For information about the training and funding opportunities, visit the
Illinois Digitization Web site at:
http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/IDI or contact Patricia Miller at
the Illinois Heritage Association. (See contact
information below.)
Pat Miller
Patricia L. Miller, Executive Director
Illinois Heritage Association
602 1/2 E. Green St., Champaign, IL 61820
(217)359-5600  [log in to unmask]

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