The Basics: Large scale Digital Project Management Part 1
I went through a class last year about digital project management, and as much as I was impressed at the technical part of the class, and the part of the class where we designed a website to put the digital stuff up, I was surprised to find out that the class had very little to do with large scale project (items that were over 100 items). It also completely ignored book digitization. This is odd, because 90% of my job is large scale digitization book efforts.
There are a few things that you need to consider when doing a large scale digitization effort (especially if it’s books).
What is the quantity of items to be digitized?
A collection of 200 items is going to be treated differently than a collection of 14,000 items.
How much variety is there in the group of items?
Are they all books? All pictures? Are they mixed documents? Are they bound? If you find that the group has many subgroups, go ahead and divide them out and make each format a different phase of the project. Formats that you don’t have equipment for currently, or items that are difficult can be put at the end.
Who wants the items digitized and why?
The answer to this question can greatly change how much effort you put into a project. If the project is just a passing idea from someone who isn’t invested in it, then they probably won’t care how long it takes to get up, or what the quality is.
When do they want the items to be through scanning?
If they expect a 14,000 item collection to be done in three months, this might be an indication that the person has unrealistic expectations. Then again, if they say they don’t care when it’s done, assume they mean a year or two.
When do they want the items returned?
Do they want the items returned all at once, or in batches? Just keep in mind that if they want the items returned all at once, that means you have to store the items somewhere. It’s easier to do things in batches, have them delivered and have them sent back.
When do they expect the items to be on-line and accessible?
Some people assume that after something is scanned, it’s immediately available on-line. Make sure they are aware that it may take twice as long to post process and item as it took to scan it.
Are there any copyright restrictions that need to be taken into consideration?
A digital collection is almost useless if you don’t have the rights to make it available on-line. Make sure that you know what restrictions are there, and how you can work with them to make sure the collection gets to the people they need to.
Do we have storage space for all the files for 10 years?
When you’re dealing with a book project, remember that each book has about 300 pages, and each page is an image. If you put them into a PDF, that helps on the size, but you still have the problem about storing the files for archival purposes. Do a few test documents and find out how much space you’ll need if every item in the collection was done the same way with the same specifications.
Do we have a content management system that can handle that many items?
A traditional website can only handle so many items. If you want a large scale digitization project to be useful, you might consider getting a content management system created for large collections that will support the correct metadata and searching.
Stay tuned for Part 2: Project planning
I went through a class last year about digital project management, and as much as I was impressed at the technical part of the class, and the part of the class where we designed a website to put the digital stuff up, I was surprised to find out that the class had very little to do with large scale project (items that were over 100 items). It also completely ignored book digitization. This is odd, because 90% of my job is large scale digitization book efforts.
There are a few things that you need to consider when doing a large scale digitization effort (especially if it’s books).
What is the quantity of items to be digitized?
A collection of 200 items is going to be treated differently than a collection of 14,000 items.
How much variety is there in the group of items?
Are they all books? All pictures? Are they mixed documents? Are they bound? If you find that the group has many subgroups, go ahead and divide them out and make each format a different phase of the project. Formats that you don’t have equipment for currently, or items that are difficult can be put at the end.
Who wants the items digitized and why?
The answer to this question can greatly change how much effort you put into a project. If the project is just a passing idea from someone who isn’t invested in it, then they probably won’t care how long it takes to get up, or what the quality is.
When do they want the items to be through scanning?
If they expect a 14,000 item collection to be done in three months, this might be an indication that the person has unrealistic expectations. Then again, if they say they don’t care when it’s done, assume they mean a year or two.
When do they want the items returned?
Do they want the items returned all at once, or in batches? Just keep in mind that if they want the items returned all at once, that means you have to store the items somewhere. It’s easier to do things in batches, have them delivered and have them sent back.
When do they expect the items to be on-line and accessible?
Some people assume that after something is scanned, it’s immediately available on-line. Make sure they are aware that it may take twice as long to post process and item as it took to scan it.
Are there any copyright restrictions that need to be taken into consideration?
A digital collection is almost useless if you don’t have the rights to make it available on-line. Make sure that you know what restrictions are there, and how you can work with them to make sure the collection gets to the people they need to.
Do we have storage space for all the files for 10 years?
When you’re dealing with a book project, remember that each book has about 300 pages, and each page is an image. If you put them into a PDF, that helps on the size, but you still have the problem about storing the files for archival purposes. Do a few test documents and find out how much space you’ll need if every item in the collection was done the same way with the same specifications.
Do we have a content management system that can handle that many items?
A traditional website can only handle so many items. If you want a large scale digitization project to be useful, you might consider getting a content management system created for large collections that will support the correct metadata and searching.
Stay tuned for Part 2: Project planning
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