Our services
DigitalNZ is most well-known for its search services, however we will work on anything that helps get more NZ digital material into the hands of people who can use it. This includes supporting the creation and digitisation of new material, helping with content hosting, advocating Creative Commons NZ licences and NZGOAL, and supporting the creative sectors in the use of digital material. It's all very exciting! If you would like to work with us on any of our initiatives please get in contact, we'd love to hear from you.
Digitisation
Make it Digital Helpdesk
The Make it Digital helpdesk is a one-stop shop for questions about creating digital content in New Zealand. It's a place to ask questions, get advice, and share ideas. It is particularly useful for organisations planning or undertaking digitisation projects, and also includes a public voting tool to inform decisions about what material is in need of creation or digitisation.
Collaborative Digitisation
The close relationship that DigitalNZ has with many of its partners means that it can support some collaborative digitisation projects across New Zealand. The best example of this is the A to Js project to digitise the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives. This was a National Library led project with the support of many organisations. DigitalNZ provided half of the funding for the first phase, as well as staff time to assist. If you have a digitisation project you would like to collaborate on please list your idea on Make it Digital and contact us. Maybe we can help.
$10k Awards
The $10k Awards are a microfunding initiative that offer up to $10,000 to kick-start a local digitisation project. Previous winners include the Nelson Photo News, and a project from the University of Waikato to digitisation the British Parliamentary Papers relating to NZ. Nominations for these awards are not currently open.
Discovery
DigitalNZ Search
DigitalNZ is most well known for its search service, which connects together the NZ digital collections from more that 120 partners. Here's how it works.
Data sharing APIs
API stands for Application Programing Interface, and the DigitalNZ APIs provide a way for software developers to access the search data that we collect from content partners. This means that information about NZ digital items (such as titles, descriptions, creators, dates created, thumbnails etc.) can make its way onto others websites and applications. Content partners share this information with DigitalNZ so we can share it more widely, and distribute access to NZ material across the internet.
Custom Search Builder
The Custom Search Builder is a tool that allows anyone to create a mini search engine across treasured New Zealand digital content. The tool can be used to share an interest or hobby, as a teaching resource in the classroom, or to provide a special search across various NZ websites. Each customised search can have its own logo, name and URL, and can be easily embedded in other websites or blogs.
Hosted Search
DigitalNZ makes its search technology available to other organisations or initiatives that need to provide search services across their NZ collections. Using the DigitalNZ APIs, and Custom Search Builder, we are able to offer a fully customised web interface for your initiative. Costs for customising your search website can be reduced by reusing components that have been built and paid for by others. Examples of this service in use include:
Housing Research for New Zealand
Shared Repository
Organisations can use the shared repository to store access copies of NZ digital items that have no where else to be hosted. The service is designed as an access repository of last resort for those digital items that would otherwise not be publicly available. It is suitable for small digital collections. The service includes simple metadata management and object upload facilities, and all repository items are automatically shared via the DigitalNZ APIs and search facilities. Please contact us to discuss the options for your initiative.
Community Kete
The Community Kete is a wiki-like service that allows anyone to load and share digital items from their NZ community. Items in the kete can be shared via the DigitalNZ APIs and search facilities.Thanks to the Aoteaora People's Network Kaharoa and the Kete open source project for providing this technology.
Creative Use
Mix and Mash
The Mix and Mash competition encourages people to make use of New Zealand digital content and data, by challenging them to design new creative works or data applications. It provides a unique opportunity for individuals, teams, and organisations to show what is possible when New Zealand creativity and talent is let loose on open content and data.