Digitisation Planning
This page provides a checklist of areas to consider when planning a digitisation project. It includes digitisation strategy and planning, how to prioritise areas of the collection to digitise, potential costs and staffing.
Planning a digitisation project or programme for an institution can sometimes be seen as a daunting activity. Whilst there are many activities and preparations which need to be considered, it is possible to carry out some basic planning and then carry out small pilot projects to develop the planning as an iterative process.
For the planning process, the following checklist provides guidance on the activities and tasks that should be considered. Guidance on digitisation itself can be found in the Digitisation section. We are still working to add information to this page, so please check back soon!
Digitisation strategy
A digitisation strategy provides a high-level blueprint for the digitisation of the collections within a specific timeline. It would normally include sections covering the vision, the reasons for digitising, the intended users of the digitised specimens, the scope and prioritisation, the strategic objectives and metrics of success and impact. Additional sections may also include policy and legal aspects, mission and principles.
Examples of digitisation strategies include:
- Forschungs Museum Koenig
- Library of Congress (opens pdf)
- National Library of Australia
- Collections Trust
- Smithsonian Institute (opens pdf)
Digitisation plan
A digitisation plan provides a detailed, quantifiable and measurable plan of work. It would normally define specific objectives, activities, targets, responsibilities and deadlines for delivering your digitisation strategy.
Examples include:
- The Arts Council of England (opens pdf)
- Norfolk Record Office
Collections inventory
See our Collections Inventory page.
Digitisation prioritisation
See our Digitisation Prioritisation page.
Costs & funding
There is information available about digitisation costs in these journal articles:
- Costbook of the digitisation infrastructure of DiSSCo https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e58915
- A cost analysis of transcription systems https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.6.e56211
Standards & identifiers
See our Standards page.
Staffing
See our Staffing page.
IT infrastructure
See the relevant section in our Data Management pages.
Digitisation equipment
See the relevant section in our Digitisation pages.
Software & licences
See the relevant section in our Data Management pages.
Digitisation workflows
See the relevant section in our Workflows pages.
Licensing & Intellectual Property Rights
See the relevant section in our Data Management pages.
Digitisation monitoring
See the Digitisation Monitoring page.
Authors
Elspeth Haston, Louise Allan, Lisa French, Quentin Groom, Anne Koivunen, Laurence Livermore, Arnald Marcer, Joaquim Santos, Peter Wing
Document Control
Version: 0.2
Changes since last version: Addtional sections and links included
Last Updated: 15 September 2023
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