This paper is focused on projects regarding the digitization of documentary collections in academic libraries. It's based on processes regarding physical materials (books, documents, multimedia files, etc) and it’s not to be confused with the born digital area or with the open repositories.
The aim of the work is to suggest a valuation of digitization projects by using a set of parameters deduced by the observation of national and international models.
To create this valuation scheme it has been necessary to look at the recent national and international academic literature and compare different case studies. The parameters were created by thinking about the whole process of digitization and also taking into consideration a user centred valuation.
The parameters identified are:
• Stakeholders
• Economics
• Collections
• Resources’ visualization
• Preservation over the long term
• Privacy and copyright
• Accessibility
• Portal architecture/ Project structure
• Interoperability
• Metadata
The valuation scheme created has been tested on a sample of digitization projects of Italian, European and American academic libraries. Selected projects include:
• DigitUniTo, University of Turin
• Impronte digitali, University of Florence
• Sapienza Digital Library, Sapienza University of Rome
• Salernum, University of Salerno
• Harvard College Library Digitization Program
• Cambridge Digital Library
• Bibliothéque numérique patrimoniale, University of Strasbourg
With this kind of analysis it was possible to check the validity of the valuation scheme created, to identify points of strength and of weakness within the Italian system and to compare it with the international best practices analyzed.