Digital Imaging Tutorial

9. Management

Key Concepts

introduction
project life cycle
in-house vs. outsource
in-house facility
project budgets
communication
project monitoring
looking beyond

additional reading

LOOKING BEYOND PROJECT'S END
Digital imaging projects do not just end. Provisions must be made for monitoring the health of digital files and for ensuring their continuing accessibility. Projects may be undertaken with temporary staff and outside funds, but as the project winds down, digital products will become the responsibility of the institution. Project management extends to facilitating a shift from projects to mainstreamed production. This is easier said than done, especially when a project has been viewed as outside the core institutional mission. Little hard evidence suggests that digitization results in institutional economies, and thus it will compete with core programs for institutional support. Some simple truths regarding digital imaging projects:

pilot projects are not production projects
it's easy to initiate a digital project; it's hard to implement an on-going program
a series of digital projects does not constitute a digital program
maintaining digital collections is harder than you might initially think (see Digital Preservation)

Libraries and archives should view digital conversion as a means to other goals, not an end in itself. If institutions are convinced of the value of digitization, their efforts may have a greater chance of becoming sustainable when projects turn into programs. A transition strategy for mainstreaming digital imaging initiatives is presented in the final chapter of Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives.