The Toolkit: Working With Vendors - Recollection Wisconsin

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