Issues in Digitization

What do you think are some burning and even unresolved issues in digitization in digital libraries?

There are a few important issues regarding digitization. Some of the more urgent issues concern (1) who is in charge of ensuring digital content is archived and that the archived information is (2) complete, (3) correct, and (4) usable.

One of the biggest issues in digitization as explained by Lynch (2017) is the fact that when it comes to online content, many do not know who, or which types of organizations, should be archiving and/or digitizing it. In Lynch’s talk, he focuses on born-digital news information, however, the issues extend further and yet have similar difficulties. Whether born-digital or digitizing, the work needed to archive can be expensive and hard to calculate. Each organization has different needs, different materials, different methods, and different budgets - each of these must be taken into account. The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives created a toolkit in 2017 to help organizations pitch the need for archiving costs. The toolkit itself has 13 different components that help illustrate how complicated an issue archiving is when it comes to organizations understanding the important need for it.

In Lynch’s (2017) talk about born-digital news, he also touched on the issue of archiving data that are complete. Especially when it comes to born-digital content, the ease of inserting hyperlinks or embedding videos may mean that articles are no longer valid or giving complete information when a user visits the site. Ensuring that information is correct and complete will continue to be a challenge as websites change.

Digital content must be correct and that is a constant struggle as technology changes, as what is deemed relevant changes, and depends on budgets of organizations. Metadata plays an important role in how digital content is searched and how users interact with it. As we continue to archive digital content, it’s important that metadata is taken into effect. Chen (2001) argues “increasing quantities of metadata associated with preserved digital records” (p. 4) will be important in ensuring that content is searchable, correct, and current.

Lastly, digital content must be usable. As Neal (2015) stated, “quality equals content plus functionality” (p. 4). As new advances in technology happen, we can expect more content than ever to be accessible to more people, worldwide. However, digital content is still not fully functional for those with disabilities. Technology has helped bridge many gaps but as Epp (2006) points out when it comes to those who are visually-impaired, information accessibility still has a way to go. Scanning a book, article, or other print material and putting it online fulfills the requirement for digitization but when it comes to those who are visually-impaired, the material may still be unavailable.

References

Chen, S. S. (2001). The paradox of digital preservation. Computer, 34(3), 24-28.

Cost-Benefit Advocacy Toolkit. (2017). Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives.

Epp, M. A. (2006). Closing the 95 percent gap: Library resource sharing for people with print disabilities. Library Trends, 54(3). 411-429.

Lynch, C. (2017). Born-digital news preservation in perspectives. Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, 46(3), 94-98. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/pdtc-2017-0012

Neal, J. S. (2015). Preserving the born-digital record: Many more questions than answers. American Libraries, June 2015, 30-33.