PLANNING CHECKLIST

• Issues of Importance
• Project Checklist

Issues of Importance

Planning for Digitization:
Digitization initiatives require substantial planning. Coordinating the many components of the project is labor intensive and taxes the organization and people skills of the project team. It is important to avoid replicating the mistakes of other digitization projects. Use of such material as the Library of Congress' National Digital Library Program Checklist is recommended.

Setting goals and assumptions:
Digital projects should emphasize creating new access to collection materials. The effort to capture and interpret the materials in digital formats will create a new collection not just present a copy of the original material.

Key principles and assumptions for digitizing:

• Define clear goals and milestones, especially the end point of the project.
• Creation of digital files makes economic sense for reasons of creating access, not for reasons of preservation of collections.
• Digitization can create more rather than less demand to use the original documents.
• Digital projects are as much about cataloging as they are about creating electronic images of pictures and documents.
• The work of preparing collections and finding aids to digital collections involves much more time and effort than the scanning of objects.
• Organizing materials, creating indexing and making the collection searchable by users will require 2/3rds of the project time and funding.
• Digital collections should be created with a context in mind. Design a set of outcomes for the presentation, creating a context for the collection that is deliverable to a wider audience.

Checklist of assumptions:

• Creation of digital files makes economic sense for reasons of creating access, not for reasons of preservation of collections.
• Digitization can create more rather than less demand to use the original documents.
• The digitization pilot projects should be conducted using only documents that are in the public domain or have clear copyright and permissions documentation.
• Adherence to national and international standards and guidelines should be promoted. Collaboration among library organizations proposing digitization projects should be promoted.
• It is important to create methodologies useful to libraries for each phase of a digitization project: acquisition and organization of documents; preparation of documents; indexing and description of documents; scanning of documents; creation of delivery formats; public access of documents; storage/archiving of documents.
• Electronic files created in collaboration or through use of LSTA funds should be made accessible to the broadest audience.
• Content and access costs should be considered separately from digitization charges.

Operational issues after collection development:
A digitization effort will achieve a set objective to capture and disseminate images for public access. After that, expansion to other targeted collections will be considered. For such a process to gain stability, it must transition from a one-time group of volunteers and project staff to a more permanent body. Even with a stable funding source, the administrative needs of the program should be addressed.

Replacement of project staff with program staff:
As the collection is built the volunteers/staff used in the initial development will leave. If the initial effort is to be sustained, a more permanent source of assistance may be needed.

Documentation and reporting:
In addition to typical grant administration reports, it is expected that the process will be documented to maintain the quality and stability of the digitization process. For a decentralized process, each participating organization should document the standard and unique procedures and guidelines for them.

Evolving Standards:
As digitization standards evolve, program coordination should manage the transitions.

Collecting of 'best practices':
With the potential for many sites and organizations to become involved with digitization, the opportunity exists to discover new ways to accomplish the tasks and share proven methods. It is to everyone's advantage to maintain a clearinghouse of best practices to share with project participants and to disseminate to other organizations.

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Project checklist:

The following list is from Paul Conway, Handbook for Digital Projects

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