Considerations

The process of beginning a digitization project involves many elements that need to be considered before you begin your project.  First, your budget and funding for the project must be considered because if you don't think that you will have enough funding, staff or time it is in your best interest to re-evaluate your budget and options for funding.  Second, the process of selecting the photographs you are going to digitize is important because of the content or even the conditions of these photographs.  Third, the pre-copy treatment of your photographs may need to be done because of deterioration of the materials in order to provide the most quality digital copy.  Fourth, copyright is important for all materials in the library, expecially concerning digital rights management.  The process of gathering permission for the use of the photographs in their digital form is a responsible way to organize and provide access to these images.  The final consideration is the long-term preservation and sustainability for your digital photographs, which could become a complicated and expensive task, but necessary because you are not creating quality digital copies of these photographs in order to lose them in the near future.

These elements should be considered in order to get the most our of your new digital collection of photographs.  These considerations help you understand what you may require during this process and what things you may not have considered.  These considerations ensures that your collection will be complete and accessible on the highest level your organization can give to your users.