Collections Digitization Framework: A Service-oriented Approach to Digitization in Academic Libraries

With more than two decades of experience in digitization activities, academic libraries are now in a position to reimagine digitization as a part of library services. Liberating digitization activities from the confines of special collections will help academic libraries reposition themselves as responsive and relevant in the face of the changing information services landscape. It will also open up opportunities for collaboration and outreach among academic libraries to fulfill their respective mandates. The article proposes a Collections Digitization Framework as an instantiation of the Service Framework for Digital Libraries developed by the Digital Library Federation. The proposed framework provides a pluralistic and practical structure to re-contextualize collections digitization in academic libraries as a collaborative library service. Within the proposed framework, digitization activities have been formalized into several business processes and underlying functions. The proposed framework is also illustrated using a case study of a community digitization initiative undertaken as a collaborative initiative between two Canadian academic libraries.