Digital Assets Discussion Group: Digital Imaging Guidelines

Digital Imaging Introduction
Project Planning Considerations and Guidelines
Digital Imaging Project Cycle
Technological
Intellectual Management
The Physical Artifact(s)

Project Planning Considerations and Guidelines

Choosing the material to be digitally reformatted often happens in the project’s conception phase. Often it is the popularity of a collection, its timeliness in context of current events, or its research value within an academic field that nominate it for digitization status. Whatever the impetus for a collection’s selection, further considerations are necessary to fully determine the appropriateness of digital reformatting. Practicalities often determine whether or not a collection can be digitally reformatted. Questions to consider include:

• Is this resource available digitally or in some other form elsewhere?
• Does digital reformatting significantly enhance this resource’s ability to communicate information? Does digital imaging hinder it?
• Does the value of this collection warrant its digital conversion?
• Does the value of the collection offset the cost of the digital reformatting process?
• Does the value of the collection merit the ongoing costs of preservation of the resulting digital files?
• Who owns the copyright on this material? The University? The donor? Another institution? Is it in the public domain?
• Is the collection of resources physically stable enough for a digital imaging process?
• Does it require assessment by a trained conservator?
• Is stabilization necessary prior to digital imaging?
• Is the collection cataloged?
• Does it need to be cataloged?
• What level of security will the collection require during any transport or offsite storage (i.e. at a vendors or another office within the institution)?
• What metadata will need to be recorded before, during and after the digital imaging process?
• How will the intellectual integrity of the collection be maintained?
• Is there a systematic order already in existence?
• How can that order be maintained during the imaging process?
• How will that intellectual order transfer to the resulting digital collection?

Each of these different types of digital imaging projects posses a different set of concerns to be considered in the planning process. Many of the same questions, however, must be considered in the early stages of project planning--selection, assessment of physical condition, intellectual property rights, and intellectual content management to name only a few. The following guideline is currently in the development stages and will be reviewed and updated over the coming months. Currently, it is only a representation of the sort of issues that will be covered here.