Outsourcing the digitisation of audio or video

Before contacting potential contractors

Before contractors are even contacted it is a good idea to identify the following. These issues might be defined in a business case for digitisation/outsourcing:

• the drivers and benefits of digitisation
• the risks identified
• the scope, volume and type of material selected for digitisation
• the condition of the material for digitisation and whether conservation or cleaning is required prior to digitisation
• the digital formats and quality required
• stakeholder interests
• the metadata and documentation required
• ownership, copyright, privacy and digital rights management issues
• what quality control and assurance parameters need to be in place
• insurance requirements for rare or valuable materials
• financial and human resource issues, including roles/skills of staff in monitoring the digitisation process.

Before choosing the contractor

Contractors should be assessed carefully. Some questions to ask may include:

• Can you manage the range of analogue formats we need to digitise?
• Are you able to provide the required digital formats (including suitable archival formats when required)?
• Do you have experience in dealing with these materials/formats (and do you have experience in dealing with unique materials)?
• What are your transportation and materials handling procedures? Is an alternative (for rare, valuable material) to digitise on-site?
• Are you able to provide the required metadata and documentation?
• What quality control, treating and assurance measures do you provide? Do you agree to our proposed monitoring process?
• Are we able to inspect samples of your past work and contact some of your clients? (these should be inspected to determine if of sufficient quality)
• What are the costs and timeframes involved? Are we protected from paying more if costs exceed expectation? What recourse is there if the timeframes are not met?
• What backup and disaster recovery arrangements do you have?

Inclusions in the contract

Contracts should clearly articulate:

• roles and responsibilities
• costs, timeframes and expectations: including that if costs are exceeded this is borne by the contractor and recourse if timeframes are exceeded
• transportation and materials handling requirements (to prevent damage to the originals)
• the range, type and quantity of material to be digitised
• the digital formats required, including formats of preservation masters (unenhanced) and any enhanced copies or access copies required
• specifications regarding the use of compression (which, if used, should be lossless for archival records)
• additional specifications e.g. sampling, bit rate
• the testing and quality control and assurance procedures to be used by the contractor
• the agreed process of monitoring and quality control and assurance by the organisation
• the metadata and documentation requirements
• where ownership of all materials lies (e.g that ownership of originals and all copies resides with the State)
• arrangements for the return of the analogue and digital recordings to the organisation
• backup and disaster recovery arrangements.

Published January 2009