[Web4lib] Results from the International Survey of Library & Museum Digitization Projects

[primarydat at aol.com]

Primary Research Group has published: The International Survey of 
Library & Museum Digitization Projects,  ISBN 1-57440-105-X. The study 
presents data from more than 100 library & museum digitization programs 
 from academic, public and special libraries and museums in the United 
States, Canada, Australia, Italy, the UK and other countries. The mean 
annual budget for the digitization projects that contributed to the 
sample was $122,408, with a range from $0 to $1.963 million.  The 
reports presents data on sources of funding, the outlook for raising 
money for additional projects, collaboration within and outside of 
institutions, staffing of digitization projects, spending on hardware 
and software, practices on rights, permissions and copyright clearance, 
outsourcing, staff training, impact of digitization on preservation 
mediums, cataloging issues, marketing of digitization projects and 
other aspects of library and museum digitization project management. 
Data is broken out by size and type of digitization project and by size 
and type of institution. Data is presented separately for text, 
photograph, audio, and film/video intensive projects.

Just of few of the report’s many findings are that:

More than 60% of the funding for the projects in the sample is derived 
 from the library budget itself.  For U.S. libraries, close to 64% of 
funds for digitization projects comes from the library budget.

A shade more than 20% of the organizat
ions in the sample believe that 
the outlook for raising money for digitization projects from outside 
sources is not favorable, while more than 43% characterize it as “not 
too bad,” more than 32% call it “pretty good” and more than 4% 
characterize it as excellent.

More than 53% of the organizations in the sample have teamed up with 
another
department or faculty of the organization to work jointly on a 
digitization project.

The institutions in the sample had a mean of 4.43 individuals who spent 
at least part of their working day on digitization projects, with a 
maximum of 20.

The organizations in the sample spent a mean of $21,839 on equipment to 
copy,
duplicate, record, photograph, scan or transform content of any kind 
into digital formats.  Median spending was only $3,000 and the range 
was $0-$330,000.

The mean number of hours spent obtaining rights permissions or 
copyright clearance of the organizations in the sample was 221.04.

Nearly 49% of the organizations in the sample outsource some form of 
digitization, in whole or in part, to an outside party.  Museums were 
more likely than other organizations to do this kind of outsourcing; 
more than 61% of the museums in the sample outsource some form of 
digitization to an outside party. Projects that were 
photograph-intensive were also more likely to describe themselves as 
being deficient in mastering digitization skills; more=2
0than 31% of the 
organizations in this category said they had a great deal to learn, 
while another 25% said that they had gotten better but still had a long 
way to go.

More than 61% of the organizations in the sample had some form of 
digital asset
management software.  52% had their own in-house system, while another 
9.2% share a system with other departments or divisions of their 
organization.

44.68% of the organizations in the sample said that digitization had 
had no impact on their use of microfilming or other preservation 
mediums.

The mean percentage of total labor time required for digitization 
projects that is accounted for by cataloging and metadata tasks is 
about 37%, with a range of zero to 85%.

Only 8.16% of the organizations in the sample had completely outsourced 
a digitization project to another organization such as a major museum 
or university that specializes in such projects.

17.7% of the organizations in the sample license or rent use of any 
aspect of their digital collection to outside parties.

For further information view our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.


James Moses
Primary Research Group, Inc.
Tel. 212-736-2316
Fax 212-412-9097