Abstract
In the previous paper Dennis Schouten discussed the different aspects of preservation
microfilming in projects carried out within the scope of Metamorfoze, the Dutch national
preservation programme for library materials. I will do the same now for digitisation
projects, which are executed within the framework of Metamorfoze. I will focus on the
planning, workflow
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and implementation of Metamorfoze digitisation projects, on quality
control and organizational aspects, and will relate these facets to preservation.
In 2001 Metamorfoze received a second four year subsidy from the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sciences to continue its national programme via its core-business
of preservation microfilming. Part of the subsidy was earmarked for a new path, that of
digitisation of collections that are already or will be preserved by microfilming also.
With this new trajectory the ministry subscribes to the view of the hybrid method which
is based on the technical connection between microfilming and scanning, or more
generally, the coherence between preservation and digitisation projects: preservation via
substitution microfilming and digitisation to increase access. It seems clear that
combining the two processes offers considerable financial, organizational, practical and
logistic advantages, in contrast to carrying out the two separately. Firstly, one can
imagine that a combination saves time and that the knowledge of the structure of the
collection and the metadata which is built up during preservation can be very useful in
the process of digitisation. Secondly, a choice can be made for a high quality microfilm
company which is also specialized in scanning and OCR. To keep both processes within
one business, prevents problems such as that the microfilms to be digitised are not
optimally suited for scanning. We have realized that there are missed opportunities when
the two processes of microfilming and digitisation are carried out separately. Various
activities have to be duplicated and because of the missed anticipation to digitisation,
occurring errors need to be corrected or even ignored. Thirdly, for a filming and
scanning business, building up knowledge of the collection while filming can also be
very useful when scanning. Fourthly, when at the start of a project it is known that
besides microfilming, also digitisation will be involved, one can plan for digitisation.
Already in the microfilming phase the future digitisation has to be taken into account,
which can have considerable consequences for specifications for the preservation
microfilms - as we have learned from the RLG Guidelines for Microfilming to support
Digitization (Dale, 2003) and the paper of Hans van Dormolen yesterday. And last but
not least, the physical condition of the collection will gain from a combination of
preservation and digitisation. Handling is damaging to collections; in uniting the two
processes, handling can be considerably reduced.
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