The Toolkit brings together resources for creating, managing, and sharing digital collections to address common concerns we often hear, like this one:
How do I work with a vendor?
Here are some resources to help you begin to formulate the questions you need to ask a vendor and the information that you need to be prepared to give when you’re contacting a vendor for a digitization project.
Questions to ask
Timeline and Budget
- Can they meet the deadline for the project?
- What is the pricing structure for this particular project? Is it firm?
- Do they have pricing structures that offer volume discounts or other opportunities to alter pricing?
- What are the costs for additional services? (storage, delivery, insurance?)
Handling Original Materials
- Is the vendor able to work with all formats involved in the project?
- Is the equipment used appropriate for archival / library materials?
- Is the work done in an appropriate environment (clean, appropriate security) and are materials handled properly?
- Have they worked with archival / library materials?
- Do they have references (former clients) who can speak to their successful work?
- How do they wish to receive materials? (shipping and transport specifics)
- What are the steps you must take in preparing the original materials?
- How do they return originals?
Digital Files and Metadata
- What is the procedure for quality checks?
- How do they transfer digital copies?
- What metadata do they add (date of digital copy, equipment used, vendor name, etc.)?
Information to Provide
Scale, Scope and Timeline
- Deadline for the project, and whether that is flexible
- All types of materials involved in the project (photos, documents, audio, video, film)
- The full extent of your project: the exact number of items of each type
- What is the nature of the items (double sided? oversized?)
- Any preservation concerns that may make the material difficult to process
Digital Files and Metadata
- Formats in which you expect to receive materials (jpeg? tiff? wav?)
- Expectations for file naming conventions / metadata
- Expectations for delivery medium (FTP, DVD, external hard drive, other?)
- Expectations for any additional types of processing (OCR, EAD, creation of derivatives)
- Expectations for technical quality and quality control
Resources
Sustainable Heritage Network: Workflow for Planning a Digitization Project (2015)
http://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/system/files/atoms/file/Withey_09_13_15_DigitizationPlanning.pdf
NEDCC: Reformatting — Outsourcing and Vendor Relations
https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/6.-reformatting/6.7-outsourcing-and-vendor-relations
See past Toolkits at https://recollectionwisconsin.org/category/toolkit.
Do you have questions you’d like us to answer? Let us know at info@recollectionwisconsin.org.
