Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook

Citation

Smith, A.G. (2001), "Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 131-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.2.131.2

A key part of establishing digital libraries is the digitisation of materials. Many libraries are undertaking digitisation projects – for example, The British Library’s Burney Collection (http://www.bl.uk/collections/newspaper/burney.html), the National Library of Australia’s Co‐operative Digitisation Project (http://www.nla.gov.au/ferg/), and the National Library of New Zealand’s Ranfurly collection (http://araiteuru.natlib.govt.nz/abouttp/abranfurly/introduction.html). Many of these projects have been (and still are) experimental in nature, but a body of experience is being built up and consolidated in practical handbooks. One such is Kenney and Rieger’s Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (Research Libraries Group, 2000); another is Digital Imaging, the book currently under review.

Digital Imaging is practically oriented in structure, starting with the rationale for digitisation and introducing the digitisation life cycle. The assessment and selection of material for digitisation are dealt with in detail, with a useful digitisation matrix. The technicalities of digitisation are covered in a chapter that assumes little technical background on the part of the reader; dealing with the process of scanning, and an overview of the different formats available for preserving images and text. The hard part of a digitisation project is moving from the small‐scale demonstration to the large‐scale, which implies a well‐planned workflow and an appreciation of the economics of the operation. The chapter on “preparation and digitisation” deals with these issues, and includes a handy “ready reckoner” for determining the resources (time and money) required for a project. Any library includes the roles of acquisition, organisation and preservation, and the final chapter of Digital Imaging examines the options for organisation through cataloguing and metadata, making the images available in a way that serves the needs of the users while preserving intellectual property rights, as well as the important factors in archiving and preservation.

Appendices provide an overview of the international context by listing selected projects and their URLs and a questionnaire that would be useful in assessing an institution’s readiness for embarking on a digitisation project. A very selective list of further reading is provided.

In covering a complex area such as digitisation, which involves aspects of technology, information policy and information retrieval, simplifications are inevitable, and one might quibble with detail – for instance, the otherwise valuable discussion of intellectual property rights simplifies US copyright law and ignores the influence of the Berne Convention on the internationalisation of copyright. But overall Digital Imaging is a useful and reliable source of knowledge in this growing area.

Digital Imaging naturally needs to be compared with Kenney and Rieger’s work. Both are similar in approach and objectives. Kenney and Rieger base their handbook firmly on experience with the Cornell University digitisation initiatives, while Lee draws more on European initiatives. Kenney and Rieger are more technical in approach, while Lee is more oriented to providing an overview for newcomers in the field. In practice, any information professional involved in a digitisation initiative will want to study both books in detail, and the profession is fortunate that both works are available for guidance.