Publication Date
January 2012
Abstract
Archives and special collections experience pressure to digitize and make more of their holdings available online. Creating online digital collections is time consuming. Not only do the individual analog items need to be scanned, but descriptive metadata must be created for web searches and for historical context. According to the 2004 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) survey, archives cite lack of staff time as one of the top two hindrances for undertaking digitization projects.1 Often, archives and special collections cannot hire additional professional staff to carry out digital projects. Keeping up with traditional processing and handling reference requests consume regular staff time.