Considerations
Budget and Funding for Digitization Projects:
The main concern for digitization projects is funding concerns. These concerns may involve what supplies your organization does have and what the organization does not have. First, the major consideration for funding would be to outsource or do the project yourself. Outsourcing may be expensive, but can offer many advantages to staffing and budget problems. However, a do-it-yourself project also has many considerations, such as staffing, policies, procedures, pre-project studies and acquiring intellectual property.
Equipment costs Equipment costs vary greatly depending upon the nature of the material to be digitised:
- Equipment costs depend very much on the required quality of the final digital output. Kit should be purchased in line with standards spelled out within project specifications.
- Service contracts should ensure that faulty equipment is replaced immediately without question to avoid workflow problems.
- Workflow and productivity may increase the more you invest in your digitisation equipment. A large project, for example, will often find that a bigger investment in digitisation infrastructure will make more economic sense in the long run. However equipment can be so advanced that it actually slows down work.
- Obsolete but reliable equipment is likely to prove extremely expensive and should certainly be accompanied by a guarantee or service contract.
- Avoid unproved technologies, as bugs may not have been ironed out and for time-limited projects avoid unnecessary updating in mid-project as vital functionality may be lost.
- Equipment rental gives you access to the most up to date equipment without the initial outlay and someone else is responsible for regular servicing and maintenance. Some rental companies will offer 'try before you buy' which allows you to offset the rental costs against the purchase price of equipment.
- Remember staff time is likely to be the greatest single cost so equipment should be replicated wherever possible, to avoid technical faults slowing progress.
Long-term Preservation and Storage
Long-term preservation and storage are significant considerations for a digitization project. Funding and budgeting should also address these issues because the expense to digitally preserve materials may be costly, but creates stability with creating and preserving these materials. Long-term preservation of digital material is not easy, which may require research on the best methods for sustainability.
Potential Sources of Funding Digitization Projects
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
They offer funding options that support digitization projects for higher education and independent research organizations.
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/default.aspx
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), supports projects that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture. They offer grants for proposals of digitization projects.
http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/digitizing.html
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the United States and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V., DFG) are working together to offer support for digitization projects in the humanities. These grants provide funding for up to three years of development in any of the following areas:
- new digitization projects and pilot projects;
- the addition of important materials to existing digitization projects; and
- the development of tools and infrastructure to enhance the use of digitized resources and support international digitization work.
JISC Digital Media http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/crossmedia/advice/budgeting-for-a-digitisation-project
