v. (also digitise)to transform analog information into digital formWalch 1993a, 469We have reached a point in the evolution of technology when every type of record we can think of has been or soon will be digitized sometime during its life cycle.Greene 1998, 151If we digitize two collections and put them on the web and they each get 1,000 hits, can we logically conclude that the contents of all our less frequently accessed hard copy collections are therefore intrinsically less useful?Epp 2000, 77Do the needs and demands of documentary makers require archives to digitize more of their holdings? Do archivists need to ensure that archival texts, photographs, or moving images are searchable in minute detail?Tschabrun 2003, 320The decision to digitize a political poster collection is highly individual.Chenier 2009, 248Moreover, those interviews were recorded on analogue cassettes that degrade over time. To date only one set of these interviews has been digitized; most of this valuable research material remains in the possession of the interviewers who have little time and few material resources that would allow them to take the necessary steps toward preservation.Dryden 2014a, 44When cultural heritage institutions began to digitize their holdings for online access, they sought guidance in the available manuals, few of which addressed controls on further uses.
Notes
Digitization may transform information stored in analog physical formats (such as paper and parchment) or in analog but electronic formats (such as magnetic audiotape or phonograph discs). Records can be digitized via scanning or photography or via the conversion of analog audiovisual information into bits.
