Special Projects Digital Duplication

Proposal Process

What is digital duplication?

Digital duplication is the process of transforming analog material into digital form through digitization.

Digital duplication encompasses:

• scanning
• equipment calibration
• quality control
• image editing
• file-naming and management
• metadata creation

The RAC offers two types of digital duplication:

1. On-Demand
2. Special Projects

On-Demand digital duplication:

• Driven by requests from either on-site or off-site researchers
• Limited in quantity
• Can be executed within a reasonably rapid turnaround time
• Can be done in-house with existing resources

Special Projects digital duplication:

• Digitization of a defined set of archival materials
• Selected by internal assessment (or prompted by special donor/researcher requests)
• Internal project selection based on defined criteria and objectives
• Any materials that need to be sent off-site for duplication (including all A/V materials)

Special Projects digital duplication requires the completion of a Project Proposal and approval from the Special Projects Digital Duplication Committee

This is more work, why are we doing this? (1/2)

• To document the decisions we make about what we choose to digitize
• To gather necessary information at the start of a project, rather than during
• To select and prioritize digitization projects in a more thoughtful, transparent, and strategic manner

This is more work, why are we doing this? (2/2)

• To formalize the process for nominating material by helping proposers articulate all aspects of their proposed digitization project
• To ensure that A/V materials are digitized for long-term preservation, rather than to fulfill short-term digitization requests

Selection criteria (1/2)

• Historical value
• Frequent use or requests for digitization
• Uniqueness
• Processing status
• Quality of existing description
• Access and rights restrictions

Selection criteria (2/2)

• Physical condition and preservation needs
• Benefits from features like OCR
• Costs
• Long-term preservation implications
• External funding sources

Workflow

1. Proposal
2. Selection
3. Project Development
4. Quality Review

Committee Members

• Sibyl Schaefer
• James Allen Smith
• Michele Hiltzik
• Carol Radovich
• Patrick Galligan
• Meetings are open, others are welcome (especially project proposers)

Thanks!