Digitization for the Masses

According to Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information president, a problem in developing digital libraries is that scarce resources get burned up in too many small‐scale local projects, which then wither away for lack of institutional support. One approach to solving it is to concentrate funding on a few large institutions that have the technical skills and institutional resources to manage major long‐term projects of national scope. A second approach is to help small, inexperienced institutions do it right. In the early stages of a digitization project, choices must be made: how much emphasis to put on preservation and how much on access; whether to do photographically exact images or structurally marked‐up, searchable ASCII text. The purpose of this article is two‐fold: to convince the reader of the importance of knowing the digitization literature and to introduce some of the most important elements of that literature. The bibliography emphasizes issues that cut across all options. Sections are on general works, landmark digitization projects, choice, quality, longevity, integrity, access, SGML markup, and copyright.