Collection digitisation is a rewarding yet complex process. It is also a task that is rarely truly ‘finished’, even for the largest museums and galleries. With this in mind, Victorian Collections recommends taking a project-based approach to digitisation.
This approach helps ensure staff and volunteers aren't overwhelmed by the scale of the task, creates a tangible finish line and allows for learnings to be incorporated into the next project. This information sheet will introduce you to the phases and considerations for planning a digitisation project.
Broadly, planning for a digitisation project involves four steps: identifying your scope and aims, gathering information, making decisions, and implementing and documenting.
STEP ONE: IDENTIFYING YOUR SCOPE AND AIMS
SCOPE
To arrive at a project scope, ask yourself the question, What are we digitising? There are two approaches you can use to help you arrive at a project scope. The first of these is prioritisation of items to digitise. Possible answers include upcoming exhibition content, recently acquired items, collection items about which you receive frequent enquiries, or items which are vulnerable. The second option is to take a more methodical approach. Possible answers include focusing on a sole type of item (for example all trophies, or all glass plate negatives) which will reduce the need to change digitisation setups, or focusing on items from a specific storage location. The scope of your project will inform its scale and duration.
AIMS
As well as identifying the scope of your project, consider its overarching purpose. To do this, ask yourself the question, Why are we digitising? Is the primary output of this project your CMS, an exhibition, a publication, or something else? The purpose and aim of your project will have implications for the image formats you’ll capture.
STEP TWO: GATHERING INFORMATION
Based on your project scope, you can now work to identify considerations for your project: the resources you’ll need, as well as any risks, restrictions and necessary preparation.
RESOURCES
Consider resources in terms of time (How many staff or volunteers will be working on the project? How much time can they dedicate to it?), skills (What experience does your team possess? Is training available to address any specific skill sets you are missing?), space (Do you have a workspace dedicated to this project? Where is your workspace located in relation to your collection storage?) and finances (Is there a budget assigned to your project? Will you need to apply for funding?).
RISKS
Assess the risks associated with the collection items you intend to digitise, and identify mitigation strategies. Mitigations could relate to specific collection items (for example using supports for fragile items), or to the project as a whole (for example determining a digitisation workspae that minimises risk to collection items). For additional guidance, consider using the Assessing Risk in Your Collection information sheet to inform your assessment.
RESTRICTIONS
Use the Victorian Collections information sheets Legal Restrictions in Your Collection and Online Collections Copyright Traffic Light to determine whether the collection items you intend to digitise are suitable for online publication. You may need to undertake further research to determine the legal, intellectual property and cultural restrictions that apply to these items.
PREPARATION
Based on the condition and location of the items you intend to digitise, determine whether any items need any specific preparation prior to digitisation. Examples could include having items treated by a qualified conservator based on risks you have identified above, or ensuring you are aware of the locations of all items and able to safely and efficiently access them.
STEP THREE: MAKING DECISIONS
Based on your project scope and the information you have gathered, you can make decisions for your project:
DIGITISATION METHOD
Use the size, materials and condition of the items you intend to digitise, and any identified risks to decide on a suitable method. Scanning will be most suitable if the items are flat, 2D documents, at A3 size or smaller. Photography will be most suitable if the items are 3D objects, 2D items that are too large to fit in a scanner, or 2D items that risk being damaged by the scanning process.
FILE FORMATS AND RESOLUTIONS
Use industry guidelines, your planned outputs and the details of the items you intend to digitise to decide which file formats and resolutions you will capture. In order to prevent digital corruption, the following lossless file formats are recommended: PDF/A (for text and documents), and TIFF at a resolution of 600 PPI (for images).
STORAGE AND FILE MANAGEMENT
Investigate long-term storage considerations for the files created as an output of your project. Your considerations should incorporate both how much space you will need, as well as whether you will opt for local or cloud storage, or a combination of both. You will also need to make decisions regarding file naming conventions and folder structures.
STEP FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION & DOCUMENTATION
The final step before commencing your project involves moving from decision making into implementation, and documenting the planning you have done:
SOURCE EQUIPMENT
Based on the digitisation method you’ve selected, source the necessary equipment. The specific digitisation setups you intend to use may inform the equipment you will need. For more on setups, refer to the Victorian Collections information sheet Collection Digitisation - Photography Setups and Lighting.
DOCUMENT
Collate all the information and decision making from the previous steps into one centralised document: a Digitisation Project Plan. The Plan should take a long-term view, and should include your project scope, risk assessment, any relevant restrictions, and guidelines as to the methods and file requirements you have selected. Ensure all members of the project team have access to the Plan.
MORE LIKE THIS
- Collection Digitisation – Workflow
- Collection Digitisation – Capturing Images
- Collection Digitisation – Photography Setups and Lighting
- Collection Digitisation – Post-production
GLOSSARY
File format: A standardised way that data is encoded for storage in a computer file. Common file formats include Image files (.TIFF), Adobe Acrobat files (.PDF), Word documents (.DOC) and multimedia files (.WAV).
Resolution: the amount of detail that the camera or scanner is set to capture. Resolution is measured in pixels, or Pixels Per Inch (PPI). The higher the PPI, the more image information is captured, giving the photo more overall detail, sharpness and colour accuracy.
Lossless: refers to file formats where the data quality remains the same as a file is compressed.
FURTHER RESOURCES