Create platform

Once you have defined your target users and appropriate platform, it is time to make your content accessible via this platform. Things to consider:

If you own rights in the materials, you should plan to publish the digital materials as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which permits any use of the materials with attribution.

If no one owns rights in the materials, use the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication tool.

You will need to audit the materials to see whether rights in them prevent you from using CC BY or CC0. For example, you cannot use these if:

a copyright owner hasn’t given permission the copyright status is unknown the materials are sensitive or have other rights in them You will also need to comply with data protection laws on any information that you hold and publish about living individuals.

Ask yourself: how many items are there, what rights do we have to publish the materials online and can we use CC BY or CC0 (or another rights statement)?

Divide your materials into these categories:

no permissions needed
permissions already given
permissions can be sought
unknown copyright status
publication not possible

If you are working on a tight budget, you might start with materials for which no permissions are needed or with the most useful materials to pilot your digitisation programme.

Accessibility Putting inclusive design to work will enable disabled people to use your digital content effectively. It is hard to create a website where all content works for everyone – deaf people and blind people have entirely different needs, for example. Accessibility means no user is excluded rather than perfection for all. Good accessibility principles benefit everybody, not just disabled people – but disabled people are disproportionately affected by inaccessible design.

Create visibility by sharing your digitised collection with Europeana and the world. See the Tools section at the end of this chapter.