Digitization, Preservation and Ingest

Now that we have completed the planning and organizing stage and come out the other side safely armed with the General Plan, the table of the archive’s structure, descriptions of the material, and a decision on software and storage media for the Digital Archiving System, we are prepared for the next stage. This is where the actual magic happens: the creation of our digital archive. Along with the great promise it brings, this stage is also the most dynamic and complex, as well as the most resource-heavy, expertise-driven, and technologically demanding for the organization. Our goal at this stage is to process and prepare all selected material—both physical and born-digital—and to make it digital preservation-ready. This means that by the end of this stage we will have the material prepared with respect to all necessary technical and archival requirements for transfer into our newly selected Digital Archiving System. This includes a series of actions using software and other technological tools that need to be applied to our selected source material to be able to properly archive it and preserve it long term. Additionally, if we are working to digitally preserve source material that is wholly or in part physical, then this stage includes a major pre-step: digitization.

Digitization

Through the process of digitization, we create digital copies, or “surrogates,” of original physical items. These digital copies are then processed as digital archival objects, preserved, and made accessible. We will therefore be focusing on preservation of these digital copies rather than the original physical items. Consult Addendum II for further guidance. There are different types of physical objects we might want to digitize that can be stored on a variety of media. They include, for example, text, photographs, drawings, maps, video, audio, and other types of content stored on paper, audio cassettes, 16 mm tape, or any other physical or analogue storage media. They could also include objects such as pieces of clothing, banners, personal belongings, etc. Clearly, the type of material we need to digitize will define both major and specific decisions to be made in the process—and each organization will make them in line with its goals and capacities. However, there are also general elements of the process that need to be addressed in all digitization projects. This chapter outlines those elements of digitization, which are relevant to the process regardless of the type, content, or storage media of the material.

BREAKING News: In-House Digitization May Cost More Than Outsourcing

If the capabilities of the organization are not sufficient for the requirements of the digitization process, a decision to hire an external company for the project must be considered. Doing so may determine the success or failure of the program. Initiating digitization with inadequate preparation, resources, and capacities could produce more costs than results, with little or no long-term value. On the other hand, a quality-assured, well-planned, and executed outsourcing option could save substantial time and effort. Hence, in-house digitization, with the different costs it involves, may sometimes cost the organization more than outsourcing the work externally.

If the capabilities of the organization are not sufficient for the requirements of the digitization process, a decision to hire an external company for the project must be considered. Doing so may determine the success or failure of the program. Initiating digitization with inadequate preparation, resources, and capacities could produce more costs than results, with little or no long-term value. On the other hand, a quality-assured, well-planned, and executed outsourcing option could save substantial time and effort. Hence, in-house digitization, with the different costs it involves, may sometimes cost the organization more than outsourcing the work externally.