Digital Archives- The Great Question

Previously, when talking with museums, art galleries, foundations, and individual collectors, we were often asked: "What is your definition of digitization?", "How do you go about digitizing?", "Are there any standards for digitizing?"

These questions are extremely fundamental, but they are always the difficult questions. Since Taiwan began planning to use digital technology with archives on a national scale in 2002, there have been many examples of architecture planning: Institutional Projects
For digitization have appeared in rapid succession . The first 5-year Open Request for Proposals Project p roject came to an end in 2006, and the next year, it was merged with the National Digital Archives Program to form the Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program. At the time of writing, the scale and installations used for digitization have greatly changed and evolved, and the 5-megapixel cameras which were standard 5 years ago are long since out of date- ten or twenty megapixel digital cameras can be seen everywhere today. The question of how to establish archives which have a long lifespan and can be used by everyone, and are worth using and developing in the future has gradually come to be the center of attention.

Why are there Digitization Procedures Guidelines?

Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project (the first 5-year plan is a division project focused on developing content) is actively developing sources for digital content, reaching out to public, private, and even individual collections of files, archaeological artifacts, speech, geography, ethnic groups, art, ordinary life and plants and animals. It is hoped that by unifying this various natural and human digital content, interesting and revolutionary digital materials could be produced, and provided for public download for the purposes of education and research, and that such a scheme would also be conducive to the creation of opportunities to add value for commercial, public, and private collections.

While archiving and adding value to digital content, different entities continued to join the project. In order to guarantee the quality and quantity of the results of digitization, all manner of illustrated explanations, technical compilations and work procedure guides were compiled from surveys of technology and digitization plans after they were gathered and edited, in order to provide education and training, as well as a reference for the planning of digitization.

Since 2009,the Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project- the Establishment and Consolidation of Digital Content sub-project, has, by investigating and recording the working processes and related technology used by public and private entities and public calls for submission plans, as well as other work partners, and combining them with digitization technology and implementation processes which accord to international standards, compiled a "Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series",  divided into two main categories: "Common Concepts" and "Selected Pieces." With regard to the latter, a selection of the finest porcelain, paintings, artifacts, and other unique digitized items was the focus, with a summary of the experience gained from digitizing these items, which revolved around present domestic and international theory and practice. All of the material chosen and edited was done to meet the aim of improving its accuracy with regard to the present status of digitization. The "Common Concepts" guide, by contrast, emphasized an introduction to the "life cycle" of digital information and quality management, among other elements, discussing "general collections" in detail rather than individual items, and using common concepts to serve as content for working processes for digitizing archives, drawing up comprehensive and specialized plans, working processes for consolidation, the management of images, recordings, texts, colored items, 3rd- party production and systems for protecting digital content, among other issues.

The two parts are related to some extent. The latter focuses on analyzing every important question in digitization, introducing the reader to the advantages and disadvantages of digitization, and the considerations behind it. The Selected Pieces section, on the other hand, discusses the tasks and technology used to digitize specific artifacts, and is convenient for the reader who is interested in individual objects, helping them to choose the most appropriate, effective working procedure for digitizing it.

Case Study

There is a great deal of information in the Digitization Procedures Guidelines, but how should it actually be used?

Suppose a Cultural and History Workshops somewhere is considering recording artifacts, natural data, old photos, or ruins. When considering digitizing such materials, you need to consider many questions such as: the type and condition of the artifact, the choice of digitization method, deciding the scope of digitization, file naming principles, checking image quality, then installing data and databases, protecting digital content and restricting access to it, at which times the Digitization Procedures Guidelines is an excellent reference.

It would be safe to say that the " Folk Cultural Artifacts Digitization Procedures Guidelines” has provided an explanation of the condition and types of artifacts and a detailed explanation of the Cultural Heritage Conservation Law and other information to serve as a reference for indicating and cataloguing artifacts.

With regard to the production and preservation of images, while a long-term view should be taken in planning: materials should be archived at fixed intervals; backup copies should be made and kept in a different location all need professional perspectives, and the Image Data Digitization Working Procedure Guide has compiled the research and analysis of professional scholars, and goes into detail on the challenges of preparing facilities, establishing standards, the process of digitization and what is to be done after producing the image, so as to help the reader to choose an appropriate method of digitizing images, the equipment and environment, and subsequent management and administrative strategies.

It may be the case that when discussion has moved on to establishing a digitized archive of a ruin, technology related to which includes: scanning of ruins and historic data, panoramic photography, scenic photography testing, painting a test model and building it or using 3D technology to build it. Such processes have always been beyond the ken  of ordinary culture and history workers but initial digitization concepts can be established, the relevant vocabulary, installations and technology understood through the Architecture Digitization Procedures Guidelines. When implementing digitization, comparable case studies are provided for reference, and repeating past mistakes can be avoided, advancing and finding an appropriate digitization aim and strategy.

Follow-up Expansion and Planning

The intended readership of the "Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series"includes government units, specialized schools, private foundations, art galleries/ museums as well as private collections, and we hope that it will serve as widely- disseminated digitization learning material and a practical guidebook, rendering its readers able to produce digitized products of a certain level of quality, and form the basic elements of an online educational platform. It is helping professional faculty members, teachers, and students are to understand and use the contents of the "Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series" through lectures and in- workshop seminars.

In future, aside from producing all kinds of digital editions, and English translations, we will also consider planning "Online Digitization Technical Resources", using an active and convenient interface to display the relevant technology and resources, providing a method more suited to the needs of users, displaying the data in a relaxed, efficient fashion. It will become an example for reference and application, sharing and disseminating digitization technology. From a passing glance to in-depth knowledge; from hard copies to data; the comprehensive organization of digital teaching materials, creating more diverse means of achieving digitization, transmitting related information more efficiently, and making future methods of information collection more convenient and flexible.

Acquiring Paths and Channels

At present, aside from paper editions (of which 26 have been published), all editions of the "Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series"have been uploaded to the Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project website, and has also been uploaded to Google Books. It is hoped that by using an international platform, our experience of digitization working processes will become more widely available. Anyone can access Google Books, enter the keywords “"Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series"”, and find any of the editions which have been uploaded.

~The author wishes to thank the Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project- Establishment and Integration of Digital Content Subproject for providing relevant images as well as executive secretary Chen Xiu-hua for her assistance with proofreading and editing.~

Digitization Procedures Guidelines Series on Google Books

‧ Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Painting and Calligraphy Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Photography Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Ceramics Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Archives Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Journals and Newspapers Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ String-Bound Book Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Maps and GS Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Archaecological Data Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Slide and Film Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Underwater Video Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Vascular Plants Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Mineral Specimens Photography Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ A Starter's Guide to Linguistic Corpora Building Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Seal and Imprint Digitization Procedures Guidelines

‧ Digitization Procedures Guidelines : Project Planning

‧ Digitization Procedures Guidelines : Integrated Operation Procedures

‧ Digitization Procedures Guidelines : Outsourcing Management

‧ Digitization Procedures Guidelines : Color Management