Handbook for Digital Projects:
A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
Preface
A Management Tool for Preservation and Access
NEDCC is pleased to present this handbook to the professional community. Realizing there was very little literature on this pressing topic, the Northeast Document Conservation Center undertook the job of developing a guide to managing digital conversion projects. The goal was to produce an easy-to-use primer focused on meeting the information needs of libraries, museums, archives, and other collection-holding institutions. This manual is intended to serve as a resource and response. The main challenge was to compile and deliver the most up-to-date and useful information as soon as was possible. The project had to proceed on a tight timetable in order to bring to our readers information that was timely, and with recognition that it would not long remain so.
The publication builds on NEDCC's highly successful series of School for Scanning conferences, which it has offered on a national basis since 1996 with support from The Mellon Foundation and NEH. The publication includes chapters by a number of the conference faculty members and parallels the conference themes. Like the conference, the publication combines a tutorial on technical issues with an overview of larger issues, including the need for preservation of digital products. It begins from the premise that investing in digital conversion only makes sense if institutions are prepared to provide long-term access to digital collections.
NEDCC hopes this manual will help institutions to plan projects that build in considerations of quality and access over time. I would like to thank Maxine Sitts, who served as the incredibly efficient editor of the handbook; Steve Dalton, NEDCC's Field Service Director, who served as project manager; and Kim O'Leary who served as Webmaster. I would especially like to thank the Institute of Museum and Library Services, who supported the production of the handbook through a National Leadership Grant. I am also grateful for the National Endowment for the Humanities' support of NEDCC's Field Service Office.
Ann Russell
Executive Director, NEDCC
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Northeast Document Conservation Center
100 Brickstone Square
Andover, MA 01810-1494
Telephone: (978) 470-1010
Fax: (978) 475-6021
http://www.nedcc.org
Last Modified: January 21, 2003
Copyright 2000. Northeast Document Conservation Center.