SUNScholar/Digitisation

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Introduction

In order to populate the digital research repository with print research material one has to digitise the print material first.

The question therefore is how to proceed with the digitisation process in an orderly managed manner?

Digitisation process

Step 1

Determine the scope of the project by asking the following questions:

1. What will be digitised?
2. Who will perform the actual digitisation?
3. How long will the digitisation take?
4. What standards will be applied to the resultant digital objects?
5. And finally, what will it cost to digitise the identified items, in the appropriate time with the appropriate digital object standards?

Step 2

From the scope defined above, determine if there is capacity to store and manage the resultant archival digital objects in the long term by asking the following questions:

1. How and where will the resultant archival digital objects be stored?
2. Is there enough archival storage capacity for the digital objects?
3. Who will curate the resultant archival digital objects, in the short and long term?

Step 3

Now that the items identified have been digitised and stored, the next step is to determine how the digitised objects are made available to users of the library by asking the following questions:

1. Are the any intellectual property concerns regarding the digital objects?
2. If the digital object can be made public, what digital format is appropriate for public consumption?
3. What platform will be used for public dissemination of the digitised items?
4. Who will submit the digital objects to the public platform?
5. What metadata standards will be applied to digital objects stored on the public platform?
6. Does the public platform have enough storage capacity for the digital objects?
7. Does the public platform have enough computing capacity to deal with the number of anticipated users who will visit and download or view the digital objects?

Step 4

In order to ensure these digital objects are preserved for future users of the library, the library top management should develop a digital preservation policy and action plans.

Service Providers

• http://heritage.blogs.africamediaonline.com/training/the-digital-campus
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Media_Online