Digitization
[4] Digitization is of crucial importance to data processing, storage, and transmission, because it "allows information of all kinds in all formats to be carried with the same efficiency and also intermingled.
[8] Libraries, archives, museums, and other memory institutions digitize items to preserve fragile materials and create more access points for patrons.
[10] Some analog materials, such as audio and video tapes, are nearing the end of their life cycle, and it is important to digitize them before equipment obsolescence and media deterioration makes the data irretrievable.
[11] There are challenges and implications surrounding digitization including time, cost, cultural history concerns, and creating an equitable platform for historically marginalized voices.
[15] The term digitization is often used when diverse forms of information, such as an object, text, sound, image, or voice, are converted into a single binary code.
The sampling rate and the number of bits used to represent the integers combine to determine how close such an approximation to the analog signal a digitization will be.
Digitizing is the primary way of storing images in a form suitable for transmission and computer processing, whether scanned from two-dimensional analog originals or captured using an image sensor-equipped device such as a digital camera, tomographical instrument such as a CAT scanner, or acquiring precise dimensions from a real-world object, such as a car, using a 3D scanning device.
While this usage is technically inaccurate, it originates with the previously proper use of the term to describe that part of the process involving digitization of analog sources, such as printed pictures and brochures, before uploading to target databases.
[30] Digitization of analog tapes before they degrade, or after damage has already occurred, can rescue the only copies of local and traditional cultural music for future generations to study and enjoy.
[31][32] Academic and public libraries, foundations, and private companies like Google are scanning older print books and applying optical character recognition (OCR) technologies so they can be keyword searched, but as of 2006, only about 1 in 20 texts had been digitized.
[31] In the context of libraries, archives, and museums, digitization is a means of creating digital surrogates of analog materials, such as books, newspapers, microfilm and videotapes, offers a variety of benefits, including increasing access, especially for patrons at a distance; contributing to collection development, through collaborative initiatives; enhancing the potential for research and education; and supporting preservation activities.
[38] Digitization can provide a means of preserving the content of the materials by creating an accessible facsimile of the object in order to put less strain on already fragile originals.
As digital technology evolves, it is increasingly preferred as a method of preserving these materials, mainly because it can provide easier access points and significantly reduce the need for physical storage space.
These include examples such as Isaac Newton's personally annotated first edition of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica[43] as well as college notebooks[44][45] and other papers,[46] and some Islamic manuscripts such as a Quran[47] from Tipu Sahib's library.
The Library of Congress has been actively reformatting materials for its American Memory project and developed best standards and practices pertaining to book handling during the digitization process, scanning resolutions, and preferred file formats.
[58] The Three main components of the program include: Audio media offers a rich source of historic ethnographic information, with the earliest forms of recorded sound dating back to 1890.
[59] According to the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), these sources of audio data, as well as the aging technologies used to play them back, are in imminent danger of permanent loss due to degradation and obsolescence.
[60] These primary sources are called “carriers” and exist in a variety of formats, including wax cylinders, magnetic tape, and flat discs of grooved media, among others.
[59] Many libraries, archives, museums, and other memory institutions, struggle with catching up and staying current regarding digitization and the expectation that everything should already be online.
[31][68] Institutions can make digitization more cost-effective by planning before a project begins, including outlining what they hope to accomplish and the minimum amount of equipment, time, and effort that can meet those goals.
Many projects, some community archives created by members of those groups, are doing this in a way that supports the people, values their input and collaboration, and gives them a sense of ownership of the collection.
"[75] It combines new audio and video oral histories with digitized flyers, posters, and newsletters from Grand Valley State University's analog collections.
At the start, collaboration between several university departments and the Native American population was deemed important and remained strong throughout the project.
[76] This archive was started by Michelle Caswell and Samip Mallick and collects a broad variety of materials "created by or about people residing in the United States who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian diaspora communities across the globe.
[12] The collection continues to add materials from the 1960s up to and including the current student body and several oral histories have been added since it debuted.
[66] Digitization can be a physically slow process involving selection and preparation of collections that can take years if materials need to be compared for completeness or are vulnerable to damage.
[77] Price of specialized equipment, storage costs, website maintenance, quality control, and retrieval system limitations all add to the problems of working on a large scale.
[15] Although each digitization project is different, common standards in formats, metadata, quality, naming, and file storage should be used to give the best chance of interoperability and patron access.
Lean philosophy refers to the approach which considers any use of time and resources, which does not lead directly to creating a product, as waste and therefore a target for elimination.
Digitization can help to eliminate time waste by introducing wider access to data, or by the implementation of enterprise resource planning systems.
