Digitising a magazine for an archive is a complex and time-consuming process that requires careful planning and attention to detail. It’s essential to adhere to best practices for preservation and access to ensure the long-term viability of the digital archive.

Preparation of Physical Magazines:

• Inspect and clean the magazines to remove dust, dirt, and other contaminants.
• Repair any damaged pages or bindings to ensure they are in the best possible condition.

Metadata Creation:

• Develop a metadata schema to describe each magazine’s content and context, including titles, dates, authors, and other relevant information.
• Create a consistent naming convention for digital files and folders.

Scanning:

•  Scan each page of the magazine using the chosen equipment. Be sure to scan at a resolution appropriate for preserving the content, typically 300-600 DPI (dots per inch).
•  Save scanned images in a lossless format, such as TIFF, to maintain image quality.
•  Organise scanned images into digital folders by issue and ensure filenames correspond to metadata.

Image Processing:

• Perform image processing tasks, such as cropping, rotating, and adjusting colour balance, to enhance the quality of scanned pages.
• Apply OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert text on scanned pages into searchable, selectable text.

Quality Control:

• Review scanned pages and OCR results to ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Correct any errors or issues arising during the scanning and OCR processes.

Digital Preservation:

• Create backup copies of the digitised magazines and store them securely.
• Implement digital preservation strategies, including metadata preservation, to ensure the longevity of the digital archive.

Content Management System (CMS):

• Implement a content management system or digital archive platform to organise, search, and retrieve digitised magazines.
• Ingest the digitised content into the CMS, associating metadata with each magazine issue.

Accessibility and Distribution:

• Develop a user-friendly interface for accessing and searching the digital archive.
• Consider providing access to the digitised magazines through a website or a dedicated portal.
• Ensure compliance with copyright and intellectual property laws, obtaining necessary permissions for copyrighted materials.

Long-Term Maintenance:

• Establish a plan for ongoing maintenance, including regular checks for data integrity and format obsolescence.
• Update metadata as needed to improve searchability and relevance.

Promotion and Outreach:

• Publicise the availability of the digitised magazine archive to researchers, scholars, and the public.
• Seek feedback from users to make improvements over time.

Documentation:

• Keep thorough records of the digitisation process, equipment used, and any changes or updates made to the archive.

We aim to raise funds for an Archivist/Researcher + scanning + software = USD10,000.00