Welcome to the Digitization Information Forum 

Within this Forum we plan to provide you the guidance you need as your create, store and provide access to your own unique collections.

Digitizing Library Materials: Grants for 2009

Digitizing in a Material World -- A Digitization Symposium

Follow up Symposium -- January 2009

Digital Visual Information Management (dVIM)

File Storage

Imaging Standards

Digitization of Newspapers

Planning a Digitization Project

Lessons in Digitization Project Management

Scanner Recommendations for 2008

Promotion of a Digital Program

Glossary of Terms

Digitization: Questions, Answers and Comments

Other Resources

 First, before you even apply for any grants, you should create a plan or road map, which clearly defines your goals for the project.  A digitization project is more than just scanning, though you will need to learn a little about scanning in order to set standards for your scanning work , even if you outsource your scanning effort. If you outsource the work, you will need to develop specifications for the scanning contract. A digitization project also contains a metadata component  where you associate text information (metadata) with your visual information (image file). This component, both the collecting and entering of the data, often requires much larger effort and time than scanning. Before you begin creating your digital collection, you must also determine what are your rights for publishing or distributing this information. The final piece is storing and preserving these precious assets.

 There are many reasons for creating a digital rendition of your historical or unique material. The foremost of these is to provide access to a greater population than can come to your facility.  Also, it can allow access to the material without having to handle the physical object directly and thus aid in preserving it.  Whatever your reason for undertaking this effort, we wish to provide you with some resources and guidelines to aid in your decision making process.