An eternal question for archivists is, “why don’t you digitize everything?” A blog post by archivist Samantha Thompson from the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives delves into the specifics of the time and effort it takes to digitize a collection accurately. Thompson notes that a significant assumption is that creating digital versions of analog items facilitates mostly preservation; however, in reality, digitization primarily facilitates access. That being said, you can still make smart choices when scanning to aid in maintaining your digitized archive.

Using the assessment framework established in Personal Digital Archiving: Identify, you can identify analog objects that you would like to digitize. In some cases, you may find fragile objects in your collection that require digitization to facilitate both preservation and access. Otherwise, you can evaluate which framework best prioritizes what you’d like to digitize for easier access.

We recommend siloing materials into high, medium, and low priority queues to help shape an attainable project. These queues are wholly personal and are shaped by what collection items are essential to you. When you establish what materials are a high priority for digitization, you can start your project.