Digitisation of exam papers

This paper outlines the practical issues and key stages involved in digitising University of Birmingham exam papers, based on work undertaken as part of the BUILDER project. It emphasises that the main lesson to come out of delivering a Web‐based product consisting of over 1500 digitised exam papers is that the actual scanning is only one stage in a complex workflow process. This paper identifies the key elements in such a process to be feasibility study, digital imaging, IT infrastructure development and project management, and describes the decisions associated with each. It is noted that team working between library, computing and university administrative staff was essential in order to manage the workflow within each of the key elements. Since its launch in November 1998, the exam paper service has been heavily used and the availability of exam papers online now creates the potential for their integration into learning and teaching material within a hybrid library environment.