Hi Chris,

In this case the size of the collection and the amount of data to be ingested and output really make all the difference.  Part of the trick is scaling for your future ambitions.  Even if you are starting small, you don't want a system that isn't designed for the entirety of your data, including stuff that may come in the future.  Moreover critical mass of data is necessary to make customers' visits worthwhile.  

If your collection is small, you should consider collaborating with a larger, local institution that is already up and running.  If they have invested in a full-featured, big scaled system, they might be looking for more content to enhance their site.  By local I mean either geographically or possibly contextually.  Archival materials are always more valuable within appropriate collections.  If your potential partner's systems conform to sound standards (METS, MODS, VRA, DC, etc.) and you make sure to keep your own data properly backed-up and archived, you could be ready to move to your own system if and when you outgrow this arrangement. 

One nice way to just get some content out there is History Pin (https://www.historypin.org/)  Pretty cool crowdsourcing of archival information.

Another possibility for a small to medium sized digital archive is Collective Access (http://www.collectiveaccess.org/) It has some limitations, but possibly a little easier from the back end than some others.

I don't know if any of that pertains to your situation, but those two sites are probably worth looking at just for comparison purposes anyway.

JJ



 

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of P.G.
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 4:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Digitization Project from Scratch

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


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