What are the advantages of digitisation? Explain how would you plan and implement digitisation in a library.

 The word “digital” describes any system based on discontinuous data or events. Computers are digital machines because at their most basic level they can distinguish between just two values, 0 and 1, or off and on. All data that a computer processes must be encoded digitally as a series of zeroes and ones. The opposite of digital is analogue. A typical analogue device is a clock in which the hands move continuously around the face. Such a clock is capable of indicating every possible time of the day. In contrast, a digital clock is capable of representing only a finite number of times (every tenth of a second, for example). As mentioned before, a printed book is analogue form of information. The contents of a book need to be digitised to convert it into digital form. Digitisation is the process of converting the content of physical media (e.g., periodical articles, books, manuscripts, cards, photographs, vinyl disks, etc.) to digital formats.

Digitisation refers to the process of translating a piece of information such as a book, journal articles, sound recordings, pictures, audio tapes or videos recordings, etc. into bits. Bits are the fundamental units of information in a computer system. Converting information into these binary digits is called digitisation, which can be achieved through a variety of existing technologies. A digital image, in turn, is composed of a set of pixels (picture elements), arranged according to a pre-defined ratio of columns and rows. An image file can be managed as a regular computer file and can be retrieved, printed and modified using appropriate software. Further, textual images can be OCRed so as to make its contents searchable.

Digitising a document in print or other physical media (e.g., sound recordings) makes the document more useful as well as more accessible. It is possible for a user to conduct a full-text search on a document that is digitised and OCRed. It is possible to create hyperlinks to lead a reader to related items within the text itself as well as to external resources. 

Ultimately, digitisation does not mean replacing the traditional library collections and services; rather, it serves to enhance them.

A document can be converted into digital format depending on the objective of digitisation, end user, availability of finances, etc. While the objectives of digitisation initiatives differ from organisation to organisation, the primary objective is to improve the access. Other objectives include cost savings, preservation, keeping pace with technology and information sharing. The most significant challenges in planning and execution of a digitisation project relate to technical limitations, budgetary constraints, copyright considerations, lack of policy guidelines and lastly, the selection of materials for digitisation. 

There are several reasons for libraries to go for digitisation and there are as many ways to create the digitised images, depending on the needs and uses. The prime reason for digitisation is the need of the user for convenient access to high quality information. Other important considerations are: 

Quality Preservation: The digital information has potential for qualitative preservation of information. The preservation-quality images can be scanned at high resolution and bit depth for best possible quality. The quality remains the same inspite of multiple usages by several users. However, caution needs to be exercised while choosing digitisation for preservation of information.

Multiple Referencing: Digital information can be used simultaneously by several users at a time.

Wide Area Usage: Digital information can be made accessible to distant users through the computer networks over the Internet.

Archival Storage: Digitisation is used for restoration of rare material. The rare books, images or archival material are kept in digitised format as a common practice.

Security Measure: Valuable documents and records are scanned and kept in digital format for safety and security. 

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