- General Digitization Resources
- Planning Your Digitization Project
- Digitizing Your Collections
- Delivering Digital Content
- Sharing Your Digital Collections
- Industry Resources
- Recommend a resource
Digitizing archival or unique material increases access to heritage collections since your users can view them without having to physically visit your institution. At the same time, it can give your researchers an accurate idea of your holdings in order to better plan for an onsite visit. Digitization also provides electronic access to often fragile and heavily used heritage collections without harming the originals.
Whatever your reasons for digitization, this resource is meant to assist you with all the stages of planning, digitizing, delivering, and sharing your digital content with users around the globe.
We know that more resources are available and look forward to updating this page with new recommendations. Please let us know if you have a suggestion!
General Digitization Resources
The following websites offer general overviews of the issues surrounding digitization.
- Introduction to Imaging
The Getty Research Institute - Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial
Cornell University - Overview of JISC Digital Media Materials for Digitisation Project Staff
Joint Information Systems Committee - Digitization in the Real World: Lessons learned from small and medium-sized digitization projects
Kwong Bor Ng, Jason Kucsma - OurDigitalWorld’s 2019 Report on Digitization in Public Libraries [PDF]
Allana Mayer - OCLC – Advancing the National Digital Platform
This 2017 study of public and state libraries in the USA includes fantastic information about how other organizations are approaching digitization. The “Data Supplement” section links to other articles that may provide assistance as well. - The VITA Digital Toolkit Helpsite
and the OurDigitalWorld / VITA Youtube channel
OurDigitalWorld - Wikimedia User Group – Digitization
A Meta-Wiki page on digitization, this website provides an introductory level overview for digitization and digitization programs. - Remote Capture: Digitising Documentary Heritage in Challenging Locations [PDF]
Although the guide is largely centered around the British Library’s specifications, it still provides a lot of valuable information in terms of starting off a project of this size - Canadian Association of Research Libraries digitization resources
Planning Your Digitization Project
When planning your digitization project you need to visualize your project from start to finish. Consider how your digital material will be preserved for longevity and sustainability, predict the cost of the project, and be knowledgeable about best practices, standards, and overall digitization policies for your institution.
Project Management:
- Project Management for Digitization Programs (3 videos and slides)
OurDigitalWorld for the Ontario Historical Society - UCLA Library Special Collections Digital Project Toolkit
UCLA Library - Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging
Research Libraries Group (RLG) - Lessons in Digitization Project Management
Califa Group - BCR’s CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices Version 2.0 [PDF]
Section 3: Questions to Ask Before Starting a Digitization Project
Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR) - CHARTER Digitisation Workflow and Guidelines [PDF]
Although nearly ten years old, this describes a workflow process one might adopt or refer to when developing one’s own projects. - Digital Preservation Handbook Digital Preservation Coalition
Sustainability through Digital Preservation:
- Digital Preservation Handbook v.2
Digital Preservation Coalition - Digital Preservation Knowledge Base
Digital Preservation Coalition - Digital Preservation Briefing Paper
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
Costs:
- Implications of Archival Labor
Stacie Williams - Crowdsourcing, Open Data, and Precarious Labour
Allana Mayer
Standards:
- A Gentle Introduction to XML
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) - Standards at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress - ITHAKA – The State of Digital Preservation in 2018
Digital preservation is an essential component to digitized collections – this study examines work being done in various countries, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Policies:
- Model Request for Information (RFI) [PDF]
Research Libraries Group (RLG) - Model Request for Proposal (RFP) [PDF]
Research Libraries Group (RLG) - Sample Policies from our VITA Partners on the VITA Help site
- Policy Guides from our VITA Partners on the VITA Help site
Oral histories:
- Oral history project resources from OurDigitalWorld
- Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University – The Sustainable Heritage Network – Audio Recordings
The articles in this section are all current (from 2016 – present) and provide helpful, PDF documents with practical considerations for these kinds of projects.
Digitizing Your Collection
This section provides information on digitizing your heritage material, whether it’s textual documents, photographic images, audio, or moving image records. Foremost in your mind should be the selection of material for digitization, the type of scanning equipment you will need (or whether or not you should consider outsourcing all or part of your scanning), and the storage of electronic files.
The National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) Guide to Good Practice outlines issues to consider when digitizing audiovisual material, among other types.
Selection:
- Digitization and Archives [PDF]
Canadian Council of Archives - Guidance for Selecting Materials for Digitization
Paul Ayris, Research Libraries Group (RLG) / National Preservation Office (NPO) - What to Digitize: Questions to Ask
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) - Material selection for Digitisation – The Baring Archive
and the digitisation selection model [PDF] - Digitization Details: Re-Formatting Audio Cassettes
This article is a good example of digitisation and workflow processes. It discusses the technology of the cassette tape, and the challenges going along with digitizing the information present within it. - Digital Library Federation Wiki – Digitizing Special Formats
The resource list is compiled by DLF members working in a professional environment. - Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works – Connecting to Collections Care Online Community webinars from 2018
- Ethical Issues in Digitization of Cultural Heritage
Zinaida Manžuch, Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, 2017 - Digitization Selection Criteria as Anti-Racist Action
S. L. Ziegler, Code4Lib Journal, 2019
Indigenous materials:
- UBC – Indigenous Peoples: Language Guidelines [PDF]
A resource to “navigate the terminology and meanings associated with thissubject in order to produce the best—and most respectful—results, with the recognition that, as time passes, the terminology is subject to change and this guide will need to be refreshed.” - WIPO – Intellectual Property and the Safeguarding of Traditional Cultures — Legal Issues and Practical Options for Museums, Libraries, and Archives [PDF]
- Indigitization — Toolkit for the Digitization of First Nations Knowledge
A collaboration between Indigenous communities and organizations, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the Museum of Anthropology, Northern BC Archives (UNBC), and the School for Library, Archival and Information Studies, the Indigitization website and toolkit aim to address issues and facilitate the building of indigenous knowledge within an information management context. - Indigenous Knowledge: Issues for Protection and Management [PDF]
- Canadian Federation of Library Associations – Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations [PDF]
The CFLA’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee completed this report as a way of providing a guide towards respecting Indigenous culture, and increasing access to traditional Indigenous knowledge. The report makes ten recommendations.
Storage:
- Selecting Storage Media for Long-Term Preservation [PDF]
National Archives (UK) - Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies – Governance of Digital Memories in the Era of Big Data
Delivering Digital Content
Effective delivery of your digital content is essential in determining how your users will actually find your online collections. Your choice of metadata plays a very important role in making your material searchable by your users as does the general usability of your website. It is also vital to know the status of the copyright of the digitized material in your collections. Is it in the public domain? Can your users get copies?
Mark Jordan’s book Putting Content Online: A Practical Guide for Libraries offers an excellent overview on the issues surrounding search and display for text, still and moving images, and audio files for various types of user groups.
- Putting Content Online: A Practical Guide for Libraries
Chapter 6: “Search and Display”
Mark Jordan
Metadata:
This website from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) provides an overview of various metadata standards and how they interact with each other. Metadata standards covered include Dublin Core, TEI, METS, MODS, and EAD.
- Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information
The Getty Research Institute - Metadata and Documentation
Digital Preservation Coalition - Understanding Metadata [PDF]
National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - How to Automatically Clean Up Spreadsheet Data with OpenRefine
Allana Mayer - D-Lib Magazine – Transforming Libraries and Archives Through Crowdsourcing
A helpful resource for those looking to incorporate crowdsourcing techniques into their projects - Linked Data for Archives, Libraries, and Museums
Copyright:
- Canadian Copyright General Rules & FAQ by OurDigitalWorld
- Guide to Copyrights: Table of Contents
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) - Copyright Reform
Michael Geist - Lesley Ellen Harris’ general website CopyrightLaws.com is also a good resource on copyright
- Metropolitan Toronto University – Copyright Basics
- Display at your Own Risk
A range of papers related to current digital issues related to digital access, copyright, and ethics.
Privacy:
- Perspectives on History – Doing Right Online: Archivists Shape an Ethics for the Digital Age
It provides some strategies archivists have used presently (such as gathering consent) as examples of protocol. - Not all information wants to be free (2016 LITA keynote) and Digitization: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
Tara Robertson
Usability:
- Access by Design Online
Universal Usability - Introduction to Usability
Jakob Nielson - Ten Usability Heuristics
Jakob Nielson - Web Style Guide, 4th edition
Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton - Usability Techniques Heuristic Evaluation – A System Checklist: Deniese Pierotti
- Web Recorder
Web Recorder is an emulation tool used for recording and replaying Web pages in an accessible manner, focusing specifically on dynamic web content. Web Recorder is a practical tool that practitioners can use immediately. Their About page is easy to understand, and is structured in a FAQ format that can help first time users immensely. - Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies – A Comparative Study of User Experience Between Objects and Their Digital Surrogates
Anastasia S. Varnalis-Weigle explores the value to researchers of digital surrogates vs. original objects. - JCAS – Researcher Access to Born-Digital Collections – an Exploratory Study
Julia Kim examines the relationship between researchers and born-digital archival collections in order to figure out how these new resources were accessed, used, and recieved.
Sharing Your Digital Collections
When sharing your digital content, you need to consider the feasibility of networking with other heritage institutions as well as determining your rights for publishing or distributing this information.
- Intellectual Property Rights Management
Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) - Networked Digital Material
Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) - Managing Rights [PDF]
Chapter 15: Managing Rights (p.101)
UNESCO - The Impact Playbook
by Europeana - AIM Blog – Let’s Get Digital
- OCLC – Making Archival and Special Collections More Accessible
- Wiki – Data Transfers to Wikimedia Commons: Sharing Institutional Archives
This article encourages practitioners to make use of a free storage solution that presents data on a third party platform. It outlines the basics and provides step by step processing (with examples) for users to follow. It provides links to other sources or suggested software that will be useful when undertaking this project, and is itself part of a movement towards free, open source technology. - Wiki – Data Donation
- WebJunction – Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together
This resource provides practitioners with the curriculum developed from an 18 month long study that attempted to strengthen “ties between US public libraries and English Wikipedia.” - UCLA Community Archives Lab – Assessing the Affective Impact of Community Archives: A Toolkit
This toolkit provides community archives with the tools to collect, analyze, and leverage stories about the emotional or affective impact of their organizations on the communities they serve and represent.
Industry Resources
These are some great ways to keep in touch with what other organizations, standards-creators, and workplaces are doing.
- Documentary Heritage Newsletter
- Unwritten Histories Canadian History Roundup
- The Archives Association of Ontario online resources
Links to curated lists of collected resources sorted by categories like “Indigenous,” “Professional,” “Towards Truth and Reconciliation,” and “WWI Resources.” - Canadian Federation of Library Associations Indigenous resources and Copyright resources
- Archives Association of British Columbia resources
- Documenting the Now
This organization seeks to record contemporary public history, particularly as it manifests on social media, but examining all forms of digital content. Doc now is also very concerned with ethical considerations regarding collections and long-term preservation. - CARL – Canadian Web Archiving Coalition