Editing Digitization (section)

== Challenges ==
Many libraries, archives, museums, and other memory institutions, struggle with catching up and staying current regarding digitization and the expectation that everything should already be online.<ref name=":142">Greene, M. A. (2010). MPLP: It's not just for processing anymore. ''The American Archivist, 73''(1), 175-203.</ref><ref name=":152">{{cite journal | doi=10.1108/DLP-06-2017-0020 | title=Ramping up | year=2018 | last1=Lampert | first1=Cory | journal=Digital Library Perspectives | volume=34 | issue=1 | pages=45–59 }}</ref> The time spent planning, doing the work, and processing the digital files along with the expense and fragility of some materials are some of the most common.

=== Time spent ===
Digitization is a time-consuming process, even more so when the condition or format of the analog resources requires special handling.<ref>UK Parliament. (2016, October 24). ''Parliamentary archives: The digitisation process'' [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p3-v0rp1rc</ref> Deciding what part of a collection to digitize can sometimes take longer than digitizing it in its entirety.<ref name=":103">Erway, R. (2008, December). Supply and demand: Special collections and digitisation. ''LIBER Quarterly, 18''(3/4), 324-336.</ref> Each digitization project is unique and workflows for one will be different from every other project that goes through the process, so time must be spent thoroughly studying and planning each one to create the best plan for the materials and the intended audience.<ref>Chapman, S. (2009, June 2). Chapter 2: Managing digitization. ''Library Technology Reports, 40''(5), 13-21.</ref>

=== Expense ===
Cost of equipment, staff time, metadata creation, and digital storage media make large scale digitization of collections expensive for all types of [[cultural institution]]s.<ref name=":162">{{cite journal | doi=10.5860/rbm.13.1.369 | title=Balancing Boutique-Level Quality and Large-Scale Production: The Impact of "More Product, Less Process" on Digitization in Archives and Special Collections | year=2012 | last1=Sutton | first1=Shan C. | journal=RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage | volume=13 | issue=1 | pages=50–63 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

Ideally, all institutions want their digital copies to have the best image quality so a high-quality copy can be maintained over time.<ref name=":162"/> In the mid-long term, digital storage would be regarded as the more expensive part to maintain the digital archives due to the increasing number of scanning requests.<ref name="Duran Casablancas">{{Cite journal |last1=Duran Casablancas |first1=Cristina |last2=Holtman |first2=Marc |last3=Strlič |first3=Matija |last4=Grau-Bové |first4=Josep |date=2022-10-12 |title=The end of the reading room? Simulating the impact of digitisation on the physical access of archival collections |journal=Journal of Simulation |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=191–205 |doi=10.1080/17477778.2022.2128911 |s2cid=252883425 |issn=1747-7778|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, smaller institutions may not be able to afford such equipment or manpower, which limits how much material can be digitized, so archivists and librarians must know what their patrons need and prioritize digitization of those items.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |title=6.6 Preservation and Selection for Digitization |url=https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/6.-reformatting/6.6-preservation-and-selection-for-digitization |access-date=2023-04-14 |website=Northeast Document Conservation Center |language=en}}</ref> To help the information institutions to better decide the archives worth of digitization, Casablancas and other researchers used a proposed model to investigate the impact of different digitization strategies on the decrease in access requests in the archival and library reading rooms.<ref name="Duran Casablancas" /> Often the cost of time and expertise involved with describing materials and adding metadata is more than the digitization process.<ref name=":114"/>

=== Fragility of materials ===
Some materials, such as brittle books, are so fragile that undergoing the process of digitization could damage them irreparably.<ref name=":103"/><ref name=":17" /> Despite potential damage, one reason for digitizing fragile materials is because they are so heavily used that creating a digital surrogate will help preserve the original copy long past its expected lifetime and increase access to the item.<ref name=":04"/>

=== Copyright ===
Copyright is not only a problem faced by projects like [[Google Books]], but by institutions that may need to contact private citizens or institutions mentioned in archival documents for permission to scan the items for digital collections.<ref name=":162"/> It can be time consuming to make sure all potential copyright holders have given permission, but if copyright cannot be determined or cleared, it may be necessary to restrict even digital materials to in library use.<ref name=":114" /><ref name=":162"/>