Questionnaire on digitisation and preservation

Archive - Historical Material

Administrative questions About the Library / institution
Name of Library
Director
Person responsible for digitisation / electronic collections
Address
Telephone Number
Fax Number
E-mail

Digitisation programme and policy
Do you have a programme for digitising collections?	yes no
If "yes,"	What is the timescale of the programme? When did the programme begin? How many items are included in the programme?
If "no,"	Do you plan to develop such a policy? yes no
Do you have a research programme dealing with digitisation?	yes no (If "yes" please provide any details separately.)

Selection of materials
Which of these criteria guide selection of materials for digitisation? (check all relevant)	Historical/cultural value Academic importance Reduce damage Commercial exploitation Save space Research into digital processes Preservation Increase access Provide document delivery services Other reasons (please specify)

Co-operation
Do you co-operate with other organisations to develop your digitisation programme?	yes no
If so,	Which kind (please select all appropriate) Other libraries - public Other libraries - academic Other libraries - private Archives Private companies Is your co-operation national international local Does co-operation consist of equal partnership buying services and products offering services commercially
Do you digitise material from other libraries?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which libraries/institutions?

Staffing
Who is the person responsible for the digitisation programme?
How many staff work on the programme? (please give full-time equivalents)

Costs of digitisation
What do you estimate are the costs of digitising documents? (please include staff, equipment, space, energy and other related costs)	Per page Per average book Per average serial issue Other items (specify)
How do you estimate the costs of migration?

Technical questions Digitisation techniques
Is digitisation carried out by	the Library an outside body
Are documents prepared by	library staff outside staff
Is digitisation carried out from	the original reproductions
If reproductions are used are they	photocopies photographic microfilm microfiche slides

Format of digitised materials
Which resolutions are used for digitisation?
Digital image formats used	black and white grey level colour
File format obtained	TIFF GIF PAL other (specify)
Which compression methods are used. Specify
File size obtained after compression (kbytes/Mbytes)
Average compression rate by image types	black/white grey colour
Image processing software used
Do you digitise documents containing characters other than the Latin alphabet?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which other scripts (please list the most important)?
Please give details of any special software used to digitise non-Latin alphabet scripts
Do you digitise sound recordings?	yes no
If "yes,"	What methods are used?
Do you digitise film or video?	yes no
If "yes,"	What methods are used?
Have you used OCR software for texts?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which software was used? Have documents undergone special treatment prior to OCR processing? yes no For what purpose was OCR processing used? automatic indexing computer-assisted reading Other (specify) What OCR recognition rate have you obtained (by document type)?
Which image viewing software do you use?
Have you carried out any post-digitisation improvements in image mode or text/OCR mode?	yes no
If so,	Which ones?

Consultation of digitised materials
Have you developed specific workstations specially to consult the digitised collections?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which type? Which navigation software is used?

The digitised documents The documents themselves
Are the documents	isolated single documents collections
What type of documents are included in the digitisation programme including percentage (%) of total digitised	% books (monographs) % serials % manuscripts % report literature % maps % photographs % other (specify)
Do you digitise any of the following:	engravings prints lithographs posters postcards drawings and water-colours three-dimensional objects fabrics and textiles sound recordings films and videos other (specify)

Catalogues
Are the catalogue records for digitised material	included in the main catalogue in a separate catalogue
Is the catalogue	in paper form electronic form on an intranet server available on the Internet or Websites
Are digitised materials catalogued to a recognised standard?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which one?
Are the records for digitised documents and the original	the same independent of each other

Access to digitised documents
Are the digitised documents available	only on-site only within the library only within the institution through a Website
If available through a website	Please give URL
Which functions are included in the browsing/viewing software	hypertext links highlighting other
Is the station equipped with	access control mechanisms billing software
Is the workstation connected to	internal library servers an Intranet the Internet
Can users use OCR software on documents in image mode?	yes no

Charges
Do users have to pay to use the digitised material (select all appropriate)	yes no
If "yes,"	on-site outside the library when accessed through the Website
If charges are made how are these calculated?	single charge by time by volume of material by intended use (commercial/academic/students) other (give details)
If charges are made how are they collected?	invoice cash at point of use credit card electronic accounting other (specify)

Reproduction and copyright
Do you digitise material in copyright?	yes no
If "yes,"	Is this done under legal provisions for libraries with the owner's agreement by paying the owner a fee under licence without formalities
Does the library own the copyright in the digitised form of the documents?	yes no
If "no"	Who does?
Are users allowed to do any of the following:	make printouts download to a PC download to a local network (LAN) download to a general network (WAN)
Are any electronic management systems used to control copying?	yes no
If "yes,"	Which ones

Products produced from digitised documents
Do you produce any of the following from the documents digitised?	CD-ROM (how many?) photographs audio CDs paper documents

Preservation and digitisation
Do you have a preservation policy for documents in digital form?	yes no
If a document is digitised, do you still allow access to the original?	yes no
Are the originals stored	in the same way as other library materials in special conditions
If in special conditions,	Please describe these
Do you have a policy for migrating data to more recent technological platforms?	yes no
How often is data migrated?
Do you migrate	all data only selected materials
If "selected,"	How is this selection made?
Is migration automatic, based on fixed criteria (for example date)?	yes no
Is migration undertaken	by the library by an outside organisation
If an outside organisation,	Why is this?

Future developments
Would you be prepared to allow your digitised documents to form part of a Virtual Library?	yes no
Would you permit the database of such a library to be linked to your Website to permit access to your digitised documents?	yes no
If you would not allow this,	Please explain why

Digitisation programmes of other institutions in your country
This questionnaire has been sent to National Libraries in each country. Do you know of other libraries/archives in your country which have digitisation programmes that would fit into this survey?	yes no
If "yes,"	Please give their addresses

Contact Information

IFLA Office for UAP
c/o The British Library
Boston Spa
Wetherby, LS23 7BQ
UNITED KINGDOM

fax: +44 1937 546478

Latest Revision: July 8, 1999

Questionnaire on digitisation and preservation

Archive - Historical Material

Administrative questions

About the Library / institution

Digitisation programme and policy

Selection of materials

Co-operation

Staffing

Costs of digitisation

Technical questions

Digitisation techniques

Format of digitised materials

Consultation of digitised materials

The digitised documents

The documents themselves

Catalogues

Access to digitised documents

Charges

Reproduction and copyright

Products produced from digitised documents

Preservation and digitisation

Future developments

Digitisation programmes of other institutions in your country

Contact Information