Primary Research Group has published Survey of Academic Library Special
Collections: Trends in Digitization, a new report examining digitization
workloads, media formats, future digitization priorities, backlog size,
technology use, staffing, digitization-on-demand requests, and resource
constraints in academic library special collections.



The report finds that digitization programs are active but constrained.
Text and photographs/images dominate the workload. For text, 46.15% say it
accounts for a significant percentage of digitization work and 11.54% say
it accounts for the bulk. For photographs/images, 34.62% say they represent
a significant percentage and 19.23% say they account for the bulk. Audio
and video/film are less dominant, usually described as minimal portions of
workload.



Future digitization work is concentrated in twentieth-century collections.
For materials from 1950–2000, 42.31% say they will account for a
significant amount of near-future workload, and 23.08% say they will
account for most of it. For 1900–1950 materials, 38.46% expect a
significant amount of work.



Backlogs are substantial and often poorly measured. 34.62% are not sure how
large their current digitization backlog is, while 19.23% report backlogs
of 1,000+ linear feet and 11.54% report 500–999 linear feet. Overall,
30.77% report backlogs of at least 500 linear feet.



Research demand is the leading factor shaping digitization priorities:
57.69% rank it first, and 76.92% rank it first or second. Preservation need
follows as a strong secondary factor, with 42.31% ranking it second. Yet
resources are limited: 42.31% are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with
resources available to reduce digitization backlogs, and the median
staffing level dedicated to digitization is only 1.00 FTE.



To view an excerpt and table of contents, follow the following link:
https://primaryresearch.com/AddCart.aspx?ReportID=893