There are a few options you can go with.
https://foss4lib.org/package-type/digital-repository has a nice list of
open source solutions.  Just remember with open source you need to have
some tech savy staff to support the software.  I know a lot of people who
like Omeka for free digital collection software.  I am using DSpace right
now for an institutional repository, it can be used for digital collections
but it is not the best since that was not what it was built for.  ContentDM
is a popular pay for solution.  Still, I would check out that list, and
demo Omeka on their site.  There are plenty of other considerations you
need to make as well but these should help start you off specifically with
the questions you asked.

On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 4:55 PM, P.G. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Anyone has experience in digitizing archival materials? I need your
> recommendations/suggestions on how we can start with our digitization. We
> need to build a searchable website so the public can access our materials
> of images, publications and media files.
>
> What platform did you use? Open-source or fee-base? What is your experience
> using it?
>
> Basically, we started using Sharepoint but at this point, I believe it is
> only good for sharing of internal documents. We are on a limited budget so
> we may need to host it on our own server as well.
>
> Any feedback or persons to contact for more info is highly appreciated.
> Thanks.
>
> Chris
>