Positioning for Digitization Projects in a Medium-Sized Academic Library — A Creighton University Perspective
Lauralee Grabe & Debra Sturges
The digitization of materials enhances access and improves preservation of unique institutional collections and artifacts. The ability to integrate text and images via digitization technology enhances scholarly research and promotes the academic library's mission to support university teaching, research, and curriculum needs. Special collections or items in poor physical condition are obvious candidates for a digitization project.
Collaboration is an important consideration in resource allocation, especially in small to mid-size libraries without Special Collections or Digitization departments. Who should be involved and in what role? This can vary depending on the size and complexity of the project. Potential participants can include a cataloger or metadata specialist, subject expert (either within the library or faculty), librarian/archivist, webmaster, digitization technician, IT department, or outside vendor representatives.
Staff re-alignment and future hiring of skilled personnel are important aspects of the planning process. This is the approach that Reinert/Alumni Library (RAL) has initiated. Taking advantage of simultaneous departmental staff openings, in our case a professional level slot in the Reference Department and a paraprofessional position in Technical Services, presented opportunities for focusing on future library operations and the need for staff re-alignment. Favorable circumstances allowed us to consider how, with a limited staff, we would best approach digitization projects in the library. Through a series of meetings with Department Heads and the Director, the need for library-wide collaboration and cooperation became apparent. Each area re-evaluated staffing, workload requirements, and future needs. As a result, a professional line was transferred to Technical Services and a paraprofessional line was moved to Reference.
The professional position opening in Technical Services has provided the opportunity to seek a Cataloger/Metadata Librarian. In addition to traditional cataloging of materials in all formats, an important aspect of the job requires creating and assigning metadata records to make electronic and other resources accessible. Candidates are expected to have knowledge of or experience with metadata schemes such as Dublin Core, TEI, or EAD, and mark-up languages XML and MARC. The Cataloger/Metadata Librarian will also work with experts in specific academic disciplines and assist those outside the library with metadata creation.
For simple projects at RAL, we collaborate among departments within the library and sometimes an outside vendor. For example, we digitized our student newspapers with efforts from Archives, Access Services, Technical Services, the software vendor and digitization vendor. Placing an historical manuscript on our website was a collaboration between Archives (document owner), Access Services (digitization processing), Technical Services (catalog record linking to document on web), and Reference (webmaster).
Besides sharing the workload, collaboration may also allow a library to share costs, resources and a knowledge base. It is helpful and will save time to adopt best practices for digital capture, delivery and metadata, such as these from the Colorado Digitization Program:
Metadata -- http://www.cdpheritage.org/resource/metadata/wsdcmbp/
Digital Imaging -- http://www.cdpheritage.org/resource/scanning/index.html
Digital Audio -- http://www.cdpheritage.org/resource/audio/std_audio.htm
One type of collaboration includes outsourcing of the actual digitization process, as we did with the student newspapers. When deciding whether to do the work in-house or to outsource it, consider equipment, staff and training needs, as well as technology support capabilities. For converting photos to digital images and placing them in CONTENTdm (digital collection management software), we chose to do the work in-house. In either case, decisions to make include: resolution standards, where the digital files will be stored, what format(s) the files will be in, and who will be responsible for migrating or reformatting them as technology changes.
In an oral history project using digital audio files, Access Services (librarian and IT support) worked with the university historian and our Department of Information Technology to make these decisions.
There is a wealth of good information on planning and executing digitization projects at the Colorado Digitization Program's website: http://www.cdpheritage.org .
In summary, taking time for future planning is essential. Considerations such as resource allocation, level of participation, equipment and training needs must be examined. Staff re-alignment possibilities and new job openings, with an eye towards hiring those with specific skills, can help address inadequacies in available digitization personnel. Campus-wide collaboration is necessary for cost-effective projects that capitalize on local expertise. And, deciding on standards and best practices to follow will help ensure a useful, more sustainable product.
