Why digitize?

• Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method - Prepared for the ARL Preservation of Research Library Materials Committee

  • Increases capture capability of items which have thus far been troublesome to preserve via traditional means
  • Digital formats support a variety of novel behaviors unavailable or inconvenient in the print world such as magnification and dynamic repurposing
  • Digitized materials can more closely approximate the “look and feel” of browsing a printed book, for instance, than can microform technologies
  • Access! Coupled with networking technologies, digitization provides the capability to serve users in-house and abroad, even in their own homes during off-hour periods
  • May be the only way to preserve materials on other media