Contents:
- Introduction
- Assumptions
- General Policy Issues
- Approaches to Digitization Chart
- Digitization Technical Requirements
- Digitization Activities
- Digitization Activities Chart
- Detailed Outline
- Infrastructure Outline
- Infrastructure Issues
- Resources.
This document defines work activities relating to the digitization (the creation of digital objects from physical originals) of original cultural materials and presents in outline form, a generic sequence of high-level activities for planning and management purposes. The approach is based on a variety of project management outlines from a number of organizations that had significant experience with the digitization of cultural materials. It divides digital workflow processes into four main phases: Project planning, Processes occurring prior to digitization, Digital conversion and Post-digitization work and in each phase address library/archival issues, imaging and conversion work, and IT infrastructure issues.
This relatively small document (24 pages) from the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Intiative (FADGI) is a valuable checklist for archives planning digitization projects. It does not define the formats, the metadata, etc. but clearly lays out in outline form what an institution needs to define and more importantly, document, in every phase to ensure that projects are fully considered and managed. It does not address the management of the digital objects after production, it focuses on the “pre-ingestion” activities, or those activities that take place prior to submission of digital resources to a digital repository for long-term management.