How does digitization create new opportunities to protect and preserve original content?
Digitization improves access to everything from books and microfilm to photographs, videos, and audio tapes. Accessibility to potentially underutilized materials like these can be achieved through a digital surrogate, or an electronic backup copy, in a digitized collection.
Increasing your unique array of media is an invaluable service that you can provide for your patrons, as well as for the overall cultural record in your area, or your area of expertise.
Digitization enables scholars to cross the globe and travel through time almost instantaneously, to engage with and learn from content that was all but forgotten until it was digitally converted.
Once the content is digitized, library patrons can research resources digitally—and you can store the valuable original assets in the most ideal archival storage environment, thus protecting them for future generations.
How does digitization lead to “gaining” additional space?
Whether you’re looking to free up space for new collections or new patron services, the decision to digitize portions of your collection can be a major “win” in the ongoing quest for usable library space.
Digitization, or digital conversion, not only increases user accessibility, but also creates much-sought-after space. You may have hesitated to move forward with the digitization of library resources in-house due to the demand it would put on your staff and resources, or simply because the costs associated with working with a scanning company were far too high.
But at Iron Mountain, we’re equipped to handle the digitization of library resources on any scale, large or small. We also have access to the equipment and the staffing needed to convert any type of content in any medium or amount.
Digitally converted, hard-copy content can then be stored offsite, opening space in the stacks and ensuring that the digitized, indexed content is stored in an ideal environment.
When you’re ready to start the digitization process, make Iron Mountain your first call.
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