Staffing digitisation programs and projects

The purpose of this section of the guidelines is to examine staffing needs for back-capture and business process digitisation programs.

Introduction

A digitisation program will require staff with diverse sets of knowledge, skills and experience, from project management to technical proficiency in scanning. Underestimating the skills required and/or providing inappropriate training or supervision may compromise the quality of the images produced and the ability of a program to meet its stated aims.

Planning

It is important that the skills and knowledge required for a program are identified as part of planning processes. Time and resources for training will also need to be provided for in plans.

Whether programs are conducted in-house or outsourced, you will need to have some internal staff able to understand and be responsible for digitisation initiatives. Your organisation may need to conduct a skills audit to determine what existing skills are present within your staffing pool, and whether skill gaps need to be addressed through training and support or by hiring new staff or consultants. Depending on the size of your team and program, some staff may be required to take on multiple tasks. You will also need to consider how existing workloads will be affected.

In planning the need for supervision should also be determined.

For example:

Your organisation may decide that individual staff members can perform the digitisation without supervision. However, you might build in an additional level of checking by supervisors for quality assurance.

Training for staff

Before embarking on a program training should be offered to address any skill gaps or knowledge requirements. Training should be directly related to a staff member’s role and responsibilities in the program. Training could include:

sector-specific digitisation training
cascading training, where one person is training and then trains others within an organisation
tailored training provided by external consultants
hardware-specific or software-specific training provided by vendors or service providers. [1]

Training may also be required at intervals during the operation of a program, particularly if a process or equipment changes, or if there is turnover of staff. See Appendix 1: Standard training for in-house staff and Appendix 2: Skill sets required at the end of this document for more information.

Staff support

It is likely that staff will learn new skills during a program.

For example:

A staff member may find an innovative work-around to a problem encountered.

Where relevant, opportunities should be created to enable these lessons to be shared with other staff members. [2]

Policies and procedures

It is essential that programs are supported by documented policies and procedures. These should be made available to relevant staff and provide instruction on the specific processes they need to follow. Policies and procedures should be reviewed and updated when required. See Policies, procedures, standards and documentation for more information.

Health and safety

Digitisation can involve a lot of repetitive work so it is important to consider health and safety issues to avoid injury or discomfort. Consider the design of workstations, building in break times and varying tasks.

For example:

A digitisation team found that there was a major issue caused by their need to crop digital images. Cropping was highly mouse intensive and staff began experiencing over-use injuries quite early in the process. An Occupational Therapist was asked to observe the capture workflows and the cropping time was reduced to 2-3 hours per day per person. An alternative would be to use automatic cropping software.

An organisation required staff members to conduct a lot of digitisation each day, so they needed to consider workstation design carefully to reduce strain. They installed workstations with motorised height adjustors to accommodate individual preferences for sitting then standing, or standing constantly during the capture process. Workstations were also designed to minimise twisting and turning, and given adjustable lighting. [3]

With records that haven't been used in a while, there may be other health and safety issues to consider.

For example:
An organisation found that some of the records to be digitised had been infested by vermin.
A staff member in another organisation opened a box of records for digitisation and found a used syringe.

Consideration should also be given to allocating space around desks or work areas for boxes of records awaiting collection after digitisation.

Note:
If there are security/access restrictions for these records your organisation may need to consider whether it is appropriate to keep boxes of records around desks. The need for access during the project should also not result in poor handling practices.

Documentation required

It is important to document staff involvement in a business process digitisation program.

Depending on the program, you may need to document:

skills audits and their outcomes
roles and responsibilities assigned in procedures, position descriptions etc
training given
health and safety assessments.

Checklist

Staffing business process digitisation programs	Yes	No
Has clear ownership of the digitisation program within the organisation been identified?
Have roles and responsibilities for managers and staff been defined, communicated and documented?
Have managers and staff been provided with suitable training to meet their roles and responsibilities?
Have health and safety issues concerning digitisation been identified and addressed?
Has adequate space been allocated for digitisation equipment and processes?

Appendix 1: Standard training for in-house digitisation staff

The following table lists some examples of the standard training required for staff involved in in-house digitisation programs:

If working in...	The staff member needs to be trained in...
Project management See: Planning for back-capture projects and Planning for business process digitisation programs Policy, procedures, documentation and standards Benchmarks and quality assurance Technical specifications Metadata requirements	Writing a business case for digitisation How to establish a digitisation program, including the planning and policy decisions required, documentation needs, establishing suitable processes and workflow, establishing benchmarks and quality assurance measures, technical specifications and metadata requirements How to evaluate and monitor programs Depending on the size of the program, in depth knowledge about some of these areas may be available from program staff Creation of digital image using digitisation equipment
Creation of digital image using digitisation equipment See: Benchmarks and quality assurance Policy, procedures, documentation and standards Managing original paper records Technical specifications Metadata requirements	The benchmarks required by your organisation How to operate hardware and software to meet the benchmarks Workflow management and working as part of a team Handling procedures for original materials The creation and use of different file types related to capture and delivery Image enhancement techniques (if required) and when to use them
Metadata collection See: Managing original paper records Metadata requirements	The importance of metadata and its standardised collection How to create quality metadata that meets your organisation’s requirements (using the particular tools selected) Workflow management and working as part of a team Handling procedures for original materials
Quality assurance See: Benchmarks and quality assurance	The importance of self-checking and sign-off How to implement quality assurance procedures within the workflow How to deal with exceptions to the normal workflow How to keep standards high in a repetitive and detailed workflow[4]

Appendix 2: Skill sets required

Skill area	Tasks
Management	Assessing the business case for digitisation Negotiating purchase, ongoing service and maintenance of equipment and supplies
Business analysis	Defining a workflow for the digitisation process Defining the integration of digital images into existing business systems/workflows Selecting image format/s Determining image enhancement requirements Identifying information architecture for business-process support
Systems analysis	Selecting digitisation equipment Defining storage requirements Integrating computer hardware, imaging equipment and software Integrating digitisation requirements into existing organisational IT infrastructure Ensuring compliance with national and organisational IT standards Testing configurations Ongoing support of digitisation equipment (where necessary) Defining policies and procedures to ensure authenticity and integrity of digital images
Recordkeeping	Ensuring legislative compliance Integrating images with organisational records and business systems Integrating images with existing classification and disposal regimes Defining file naming conventions Defining and implementing disposal process Defining metadata Monitoring quality of metadata Managing original paper records during and after digitisation Ensuring that records of the digitisation program are kept
Equipment operations	Operating digitisation equipment Applying any defined selection criteria Carrying out quality checking on digital images Adding metadata to digital images [5]

Footnotes

[1]Loc.cit.

[2] National Library of Australia, Blog post: ‘Australian home companion and band of hope journal’, available at: http://blogs.nla.gov.au/behind-the-scenes/2011/08/23/australian-home-companion-and-band-of-hope-journal/

[3] Archives New Zealand Digitisation Standard, 2007, Appendix 8: Recommended staff skill sets. p.43, available at: http://archives.govt.nz/standard-6-digitisation-standard

Recordkeeping Advice

Digitisation

Recordkeeping A-Z

D S

Staffing digitisation programs and projects

Introduction

Planning

Training for staff

Staff support

Policies and procedures

Health and safety

Documentation required

Checklist

Appendix 1: Standard training for in-house digitisation staff

Appendix 2: Skill sets required

Footnotes

State Records NSW pays respect to the Traditional Custodians and First Peoples of NSW, and acknowledges their continued connection to country and culture.