Introduction to Guidelines

     Before you consider starting a digitization project there are many things to consider.  According to Roy M. McCutchen and his article Reformatting Photographs for Digitization for Colorado Libraries there are many ways to transform archival materials, such as photographs, but these transformations are expensive and can lead to disappointing results.  McCutchen provides a few questions that need to be answered before you begin your digitization project.  I will address some of these questions and other considerations in the following guidelines.

I. What do we want to be able to do with the images--
        a. record and store for the future,
        b. distribute prints of images,
        c. view images on a monitor,
        d. put images on a web site,
        e. make large display prints, and/or
        f. distribute images for publication?
    II. What type of originals do we have--
        a. old black-and-white prints,
        b. old color prints,
        c. glass-plate negatives,
        d. daguerreotype, ambrotype, tintype, etc.,
        e. nitrate negatives, and/or
        f. old movie film?
    III. What miscellaneous issues need to be addressed--
        a. safety of originals,
        b. copyright,
        c. longevity of media.
        d. length of time for project,
        e. outsource or bring project in-house (one should be very careful with this one), and/or
        f. budget (Oh yeah, that!)?