Should You? May You? Can You? Factors in Selecting Rare Books and Special Collections for Digitization.

Abstract

Selection for digitization is about more than which items to scan. Selection is what shapes the online collections that are built by libraries, archives, historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions. By selecting well, institutions can concentrate on the parts of their collections that are best suited to digitization, that make the most effective use of technology, and that meet the needs of their audiences. They can create online collections that are both useful and usable, and they can create high quality digital assets they can manage well into the future.