Digitisation
Digitisation at universities often involves the conversion of physical documents, resources, and processes into digital formats to improve accessibility, efficiency, and preservation. Digitisation workflows in universities involve converting physical materials, such as books, documents, photographs, and other artefacts, into digital formats. This is done to preserve and provide access to these materials in a digital environment. Digitisation workflows typically have several stages, including planning, preparation, digitisation, quality control, metadata creation, and access.
NWU Digitisation Workflow
Material Selection and Preparation
- Researcher identifies and gathers the physical materials to be digitised, such as books, documents, photographs, or artefacts (up to A1).
- Assess the condition of the materials and perform any necessary repairs or stabilisation to ensure they can withstand the digitisation process.
- Organise and catalogue the materials for efficient digitisation.
Copyright and Permissions
- Determine copyright status and obtain necessary permissions to digitise and provide access to copyrighted materials.
- Ensure compliance with intellectual property rights and licensing agreements.
Digitisation Equipment and Setup
- Select appropriate scanning or imaging equipment based on the type and condition of the materials.
- Set up the equipment and configure settings, such as resolution and colour, for optimal digitisation.
Digitisation
- Scan or photograph the materials using the chosen equipment.
- Ensure the highest possible quality and resolution to capture fine details.
- Capture images in standard formats like PDF, TIFF or JPEG.
Quality Control
- Review the digitised images to ensure they meet established quality standards.
- Check for image clarity, colour accuracy, and completeness.
- Retake images or adjust as needed.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
- If applicable, perform OCR to convert text within scanned documents into machine-readable and searchable text.
Metadata Creation
- Create descriptive metadata for each digitised item, including title, author, date, subject, and other relevant information.
- Create technical metadata, such as file format and resolution.
Storage and Backup
- Store digitised materials in a secure and redundant storage system to prevent data loss.
Service
- For digitisation needs, contact us at the Digital Scholarship Centre for more information or a quote.
- Mahikeng Campus, Ground floor, Room G15
CONTACT
Songezo Mpikashe
Senior Librarian: Institutional Repositories and
Digital Scholarship
+27 (0)18 389 2352