Disruptive Library Technology Jester

I’m looking for information about the formation and management of regional digitization centers for one of the OhioLINK strategic task forces. For our purposes, a “regional digitization center” is a place that has the hardware, software, and human expertise to convert a variety of media to digital form. (We’re primarily looking at small format imaging, but could also include broadside imaging, audio capture, and video transformation.) There is plenty of information to be found about the services that centers provide and even more evidence of regional groups wanting to create these centers, but precious little about the operation of the centers themselves. (As in zilch in professional literature searches, and only a few hits via general web searching.) The kinds of things I’m looking for are:

• Operational structures, ranging from staff at the center that do the actual digitization to centers that just provide equipment and the organization wanting the digitized materials providing the staffing.
• Cost structures for initial center development and ongoing support.
• Project plans for building and promoting regional digitization centers.

Here’s what I’ve found so far. There is a really good message from Liz Bishoff from the time she was the Executive Director of the Colorado Digitization Program. There is also this bit from an article Liz Bishoff wrote for First Monday:

To assure that the institutions had access to equipment that supported these standards, the CDP established five regional scan centers. These centers provide the Colorado institutions with relatively easy access to scanning equipment, assistance by trained staff in scanning, and access to the union catalog and local databases via the Web. Each institution has to do their own scanning. Training sessions on scanning and metadata are being conducted throughout the spring and summer, 2000 at these regional scan centers. It is hoped that the combination of consulting on scanning, training, and quality equipment will result in a consistent quality image, as well as developing expertise at the local institution level.¹

The same themes are repeated in an interview from the NINCH Guide to Good Practice. Beyond the CDP project, though, the findable information drops off quickly. I’ve found that the Making of Modern Michigan project has spawned quite a number of regional centers, as have other efforts. I’m going to get in touch with folks in Colorado and Michigan, but in the meantime if you know of something I’ve missed (or you run one of these kinds of centers yourself) please let me know.

Footnotes

1. Bishoff, L. (2000). Interoperability and standards in a museum/library collaborative. First Monday, 5(6). Retrieved May 18, 2007, from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_6/bishoff/. [↩]