This document discusses digitization and the role of librarians in digitization projects. It begins with an introduction to digitization, including definitions and the digitization process. It then covers topics such as digitization for preservation and access, challenges of digitization, and the responsibilities of librarians in digitization projects. The document provides an overview of key issues in planning and managing library digitization initiatives.

1. PAARL NATIONAL SUMMER CONFERENCE
PLANNING, DEVELOPING AND MANAGING DIGITIZATION & RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION CENTERS
18-20 April 2012
Coron, Palawan
DIGITIZATION FOR ACCESS AND PRESERVATION: Role of Academic and Research Librarians
Marian S. Ramos
msramos@up.edu.ph

2. OUTLINE
•Introduction
•Digitization Process
•Digitization for Preservation
•Digitization for Access
•Librarians in Digitization Project
•Challenges and Issues of Library Digitization
•Conclusion
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3. 3
Introduction

4. 4
Introduction
“The conversion of all sorts of cultural contents into bits and bytes opens up a completely new dimensions of reaching traditional and new audiences by providing access to cultural heritage resources in ways unimaginable a decade ago.”
-- Mulrenin and Geser, 2001

5. “The process of making an electronic version of a ‘real world’ object or event, enabling the object to be stored, displayed and manipulated on a computer, and disseminated over networks and/or WWW” (Eadie, 2005)
Involves the process of making non-digitally created materials available in digital format.
DIGITIZATION…
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6. DIGITIZATION
Digitization does not always mean scanning.
Digitization can involve simple data conversion from catalog cards or paper to digital form, video and audio migration to digital form, and so on.
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7. »Can be linked to other materials to create multimedia
»Is not dependent upon spatial or temporal barriers
Digital Asset: Characteristics and Qualities
»Can be stored and delivered in a variety of ways
»Can be copied limitless times without degradation of the original
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8. 8 Is there a need to convert analogue to digital? Why convert or digitize? What can be converted?

9. DIGITIZATION PROCESS
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10. 10
Model: Library Digitization, Digital Library and Library Hybridization (Ayanbode, 2001)

11. Process of Digitization
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Policy enactment
Policy approval
Planning, budgeting and monitoring
Acquisition of appropriate technology
Administrative decisions on the procedure to be adopted
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(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)

12. Process of Digitization
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Sensitization, psychological preparation and retraining of staff
Copyright permission
Implementation and trial testing
Evaluation of project
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(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)

13. Process of Digitization
Policy enactment
Policy approval
Digitization policy serves as a reference point and guide for project implementation
Contains the goals of the digitization project
Approved by appropriate authorities before project implementation
(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)

14. Process of Digitization
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Planning, budgeting and monitoring
Budgets for digitization projects should include the following categories:
salaries, wages, and benefits;
staff training;
equipment and supplies;
services, contracts and legal fees; overhead and indirect costs; maintenance, licenses, communication charges; contingency
(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)

15. Process of Digitization
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Administrative decisions on the procedure to be adopted
Decision has to be made on the mode of operation:
Establish links with existing digital contents or libraries
Digitize in-house
Outsourcing
(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)

16. Process of Digitization
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Sensitization, psychological preparation and retraining of staff
(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)
o Learn how to manage change
o Educate library staff and allay their fears
Copyright permission
 Seek copyright permission
 If an item is still under copyright, it can be digitized for in- house use only.

17. Process of Digitization
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Evaluation of project
(Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi, 2006)
 Make periodic evaluation of the project
Based on the set goals
Number of digitized items
Quality of digital content
Use of digital contents by users

18. Benefits of Digitization
•Broader and enhanced access, to a wider community
•Preservation endangered library resources
•Increase usage of library materials especially those are special collections and records with archival value
•Improvement of the efficiency of information search mechanisms
•Generate new and exciting research opportunities
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19. 19
Wrong Motives for Digitization
•Substitute for microfilming
•To save space
•To save money
•“Because we can”
•Substitute for collection development

20. 20
Guidelines for Digitization Projects
UNESCO, IFLA and ICA suggest that digitization projects should be:
oUser driven, based on a high demand for enhanced access to content
oOpportunity driven, when money is available for a particular initiative
oPreservation driven, when there is a need to protect fragile materials from handling
oRevenue driven, where there is an opportunity to generate income from digital resources
(Hughes, 2004)

21. 21
Before you start,
ask yourself
Is the project?
User driven: high demand for (enhanced) access
Opportunity driven: money available so we can do something
Preservation driven: high demand on fragile objects
Revenue driven: we might make some money from it

22. 22
Before you start,
ask yourself Do we have? The money The skills The capacity The technical infrastructure

23. 23
Before you start,
ask yourself
Carry out
Benchmarking study
Copyright study
Feasibility study
Technical pilot study

24. What can be digitized?
•Old manuscripts
•Research projects
•Photo images
•Analogue maps
•Non-live musical recordings
•Government official gazettes
•Oral history resources
•Newspapers
•Artifacts
•Art
•Rare books
•Biographies
•Microfilm
•And many more…
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25. Value
Does the material have sufficient intrinsic value?
Condition
Are digital format needed because the original materials are unserviceable?
Use
Are materials in demand? How are they used, and with what frequency, by which users?
Characteristics
Do the physical formats of the materials lend themselves to digitization at an acceptable high level of reproduction?
Criteria for Selection
(Beagrie, 2004; Rosenthal: 2005; Hughes, 2004)
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26. Digitization for PRESERVATION
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27. Digitization for Preservation
•It creates valuable new digital asset worthy of long-term preservation.
•Association for Research Libraries (2004) endorsed digitization as an acceptable preservation strategy.
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(Conway, 2010)

28. Digitization for PRESERVATION
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•Lessens use of originals?
•Long-term commitment to maintain files
–Technology, funding, equipment, personnel needs to maintain accessibility to files
•Serious concerns re: fragile materials as demands increase to have them in digital format
–Need to consider preservation/conservation requirements of originals prior to digitization
(Trinkaus-Randall, 2010)

29. Digitization for PRESERVATION
There is considerable unease within the library sector at the prospect of relying on a digital copy as a substitution for other formats. Many librarians felt that film still provided the best preservation medium.
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(Scoping the Future of the University of oxford’s Digital Library Collections)

30. 30 Digitization for PRESERVATION
There was a general acceptance among librarians that “digital surrogates could assist in deflecting demand away from handling originals.”
“… digitization should not be allowed to detract from traditional conservation efforts to preserve the original.”
(Scoping the Future of the University of oxford’s Digital Library Collections)

31. “combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time.” --Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Preservation and Reformatting Section
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Long term institutional commitment:

32. 32
Digital PRESERVATION
“Digital preservation protects the value of digital assets, regardless of whether the original source is a tangible artifact or data that were born and live digitally.”
(Conway, 2010)

33. Digitization for ACCESS
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34. Primary purpose of DIGITIZATION
Improve Access
Valuable information 34

35. Digitization for ACCESS
 Simultaneous access to digital asset by multiple users
 Efficient comprehensive search to digitized library resources from anywhere at any time
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36. DIGITIZATION FOR ACCESS
Digitization makes the invisible to be visible.
Digital information can be accessed without any geographical limitation, thus providing remote access.
It removes the problem of distance, as users do not have to be physically present in the library.
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37. Digitization for Access
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Clearer image than microfilm and easier to read
Provides excellent surrogates of originals
Exhibitions, research, publicity, etc.
Easily retrieved and manipulated, transmittable, and transportable from a repository to the sites of research, presentation, and teaching.
 Increasing researcher’s expectations on availability of materials in digital format
(Trinkaus-Randall, 2010)

38. LIBRARIANS in Digitization Project
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39. DIGITIZATION PROJECT
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Responsibilities of Librarians
Managing digitization projects and staff
Fundraising and grant writing
Managing budgets
Writing job descriptions, hiring staff
Setting goals and targets
Writing documentation and reports

40. DIGITIZATION PROJECT
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Responsibilities of Librarians
Selecting materials, in cooperation with subject specialists
Conservation assessment of originals
Preservation handling or treatment where necessary
Creating basic catalog records or tracking lists where necessary
Evaluating copyright status of originals

41. DIGITIZATION PROJECT
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Responsibilities of Librarians
Cataloging and indexing digital objects
Monitoring of digitization procedures and performing of quality assessment
Developing delivery mechanisms and finding aids
Preservation and archiving of digital objects
Instruction and end-user support

42. Challenges and Issues of Library Digitization
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43. Challenges and Issues of Library Digitization
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o Sourcing of sufficient funds
o The proportion of additional materials to be digitized will depend upon the available fund.
o Allocation of adequate fund by the appropriate authorities

44. Challenges and Issues of Library Digitization
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o Digitization entails policy initiation, setting priorities and planning
o Libraries need to do benchmarking of digitization projects
oManaging staff resistance to change
o Orientation of library users

45. Challenges and Issues of Library Digitization
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o Copyright permission to digitized library materials
oInstitutional buy-in
oTechnical drawbacks
o Plagiarism
o What access is allowed
o Electronic Theses/ Dissertations & publishers http://reyalsluna.blogspot.com/

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Threats to Digital Assets (Beagrie, 2004; Rosenthal: 2005) Storage medium deteriorate overtime
Obsolescence of the carrier
File format obsolescence
Older versions of software may not work on new hardware or operating system

47. Threats to Digital Assets
•Valuable digital assets of institutions are at risk of being inaccessible.
•The success of preserving digital materials requires standards for file formats.
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48. 48
Conclusion
Digitization of library resources “is changing the ways in which collections are used and accessed.”
(Hughes, 2004, pp.29-30)

49. Conclusion
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“It is important to evaluate whether or not digitization is truly worthwhile before undertaking a digitization initiative.”
(Hughes, 2004, pp.29-30)

50. Conclusion
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“Valuable digital resources, which will bring prestige to the institutions that create and maintain them, will be those that can support scholarship without any loss of the benefits of working with the originals.”
(Hughes, 2004, pp.29-30)

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Berger, M. (1999). Digitization for preservation and access: a case study. Library Hi Tech 17(2: 146-151. Available in Emerald Management eJournals
Burningham, B. (1999). Attitudes of the Canadian research community toward creating and accessing digitized fascimile collections of historical documents. Computers and the Humanities 33(4): 409-419 Available in JSTOR
Conway, P. (2010). Preservation in the age of Google: digitization preservation, and dilemmas. The Library Quarterly 80(1): 61-79 Available in JSTOR
Fleming, A, Mering, M. and Wofle, J. (2008). Library personnel's role in the creation of metadata: a survery of academic libraries. Faculty Publications, UNL Libraries, paper 222. Available in the Internet (accessed April 1, 2012) at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/222
Fabunmi, B., Paris, M. and Fabunmi, M. (2006). Digitization of library resources: challenges and implication for policy and planning. International Journal of African & African American Studies 5(2): 23-35. Available in the Internet (accessed April 1, 2012) at https://ojcs.siue.edu/ojs/index.php/ijaaas/article/viewFile/80/142
Hirtle, P. (2002). The impact of digitization on special collections in libraries. Libraries & Culture 37 (1): 42-52. Available in JSTOR
Hughes, L. (2004). Digitizing collections: strategic issues for the information manager. London: Facet Publishing
Lee, S. Scoping the future of the University of Oxford's digital library collections. Available in the Internet (accessed April 1, 2012)
Lopatin, L. (2006). Library digitization projects, issues and guidelines: a survey of the literature. Library Hi Tech 24(2): 273-289. Available in Emerald Management eJournals
Middleton, M. (1999). Library digitization project management. 20th IATUL Conference. Available in the Internet (accessed April 1, 2012)
Shiloba, G. and N.G. B. (2009). Beyond digitization: access and preservation. The Information Manager 9(1): 10-14 Available in the Internet (accessed April 1, 2012)
Sreenivasulu, V. (2000). The role of a digital librarian in the management of digital information systems (DIS). The Electronic Library 18(1): 12-20. Available in Emerald Management eJournals
Verma, M. (2008). Digitization and new rold of library professionals. International CALIBER 2008, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, February 28-29, March 1, 2008.
Yiotis, K. (2008). Electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) repositories: what are they? where do they come from? how do they work?. OCLC Systems and Services 24(2): 101-115. Available in Emerald Management eJournals
Bibliography
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52. ?
Thank you! Questions?
Marian S. Ramos
msramos@up.edu.ph
www.mainlib.upd.edu.ph
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