Capture Your Collections
A Guide for Managers Planning and Implementing
Digitization Projects
Determining the Costs of a Digitization Project
Whether digitizing in-house or contracting the work out, costs
based on requirements as defined are associated with any digitization
project. It is important to anticipate these costs and budget
for them being realistic about expectations of ‘savings’
from the digitization of images. Management needs to expect initial
costs based on the requirements determined in the project planning
phase, but should also understand that long-term benefits are
great; they include enhanced collections management documentation,
preservation of original objects, enhanced information on museum
intellectual property, allowance for public access, increased
visibility for the institution, etc.34
Among the various constituents of total cost for a digitization
project are the following:
- Documentation,
- Material or capital costs, including equipment, hardware and
software, scanning equipment and image manipulation software,
- Equipment costs for image capture, digital image storage,
and maintenance of digital images,
- Human resources; either hiring new or training existing staff,
- Sufficient space and facilities for equipment and any necessarynew
staff,
- Transportation and handling of objects to be photographed
or images going to an outside source (mainly for two-dimensional
objects — costs will be higher for three-dimensional objects),
- Insurance costs related to transportation,
- Set-up time,
- Photography and/or treatment of current photographs,
Film processing and/or scanning,
- Quality control,
- Image manipulation, i.e., adjusting images for their intended
purpose,
- Ongoing maintenance.
It may also be helpful to consider possibilities for cost sharing
with another institution as well as pooling resources for equipment
and/or staff costs.
The largest expense will not be the actual scanning or photography,
but the subject expertise required for documentation, locating,
reviewing and assembling source material, preparing and tracking
it, and quality control.35
On a project done in-house, these costs will take the form of
training current staff, hiring new staff, and buying new equipment.
It would be wise to investigate possibilities such as hiring interns
or students from a community or technical college to do the image
manipulation.36 Costs for a
short-term project are determined by examining the hourly salary
of each member of the team involved in the project. Adding tasks
to a current staff member may add ‘stress’, and redistribution
of work should be considered.37
A project that is contracted out will still require some staff
training.
If photographs suitable for scanning are not available for all
objects it is necessary to consider costs for preparation time,
transportation of heavy objects, disbinding manuscripts, conservator
checking of objects for damage, the photographic set-up, and the
expertise required for all of these tasks.
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IN-HOUSE
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CONTRACTING OUT
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ADVANTAGES
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Learn by doing and develop in-house
expertise
Build production capability
Retain control over all aspects of
imaging
Some flexibility in defined requirements
Security of source material
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Expertise and training of the digital
service provider
Set cost per image, prices can be negotiated
based on volume which facilitates budget and project planning
Lower labour costs
Costs of technological obsolescence
are absorbed by the digital service provider
Limited risk
Variety of options and services
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DISADVANTAGES
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Larger investment
No set price per image
Need to set up technical infrastructure: space, digitization
equipment, computers
Limits on production capabilities and facilities
Institution incurs costs of technological obsolescence
Impact on other activities
Institution pays for equipment, maintenance and personnel
rather than for product
Need for trained staff, training
Equipment support
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Museum removed one step from imaging functions
Possible inexperience with museum needs
Quality control not on site
Images will still need to be manipulated by museum staff.
Random samples of the images produced should be conducted.
Needs must be clearly defined in contract or there will
be communications problems
Transporting material — security and handling issues,
especially with 3-D objects
Vulnerability due to instability of digital service
providers (companies in business for over two years are
considered viable)
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If contracting out is decided upon, contract specifications for
the digital service provider must be carefully defined, with a
clear statement of the need for consistent results.40
A possible compromise between the two approaches may be to hire
a professional photographer to work on-site with museum staff.
Obviously, the decision about whether to produce images in-house
or by contracting out will be influenced by many factors, all
part of the planning process. This is why it is important to have
a realistic appraisal of the institutional situation.
