Decide whether to digitise in-house or outsource

Evaluate your in-house digitisation capabilities. It’s cheapest to do it yourself as much as possible, but make sure you have a good overview of what the possibilities are! What does your organisation know about digitisation of the objects, materials or site you want to digitise? What human resources, skills and equipment are available in-house? What additional resources or training would be necessary? This Handbook will not only help you go through the steps of digitisation, but also provides lists of free and/or widely available tooling and courses. We recommend teaming up with your national or thematic aggregator. A list is available in the “Tools” section at the end of this chapter.

When you know what needs to be done and how, you are able to estimate the costs and compare those to the benefits you expect. Carry out a cost-benefit analysis to consider whether in-house digitisation, outsourcing or a mix of both, offers the best value for your project. Technological progress on digitisation of documents, audio/video materials or the capturing of 3D objects or structures is evolving fast and there are more cheap options available than ever. Read more about available technologies and tools in chapter 3 Digitization of the selected objects or materials.

If you decide to -partly- outsource the work, you need to be able to understand the limits of different data capturing techniques as well as to analyse and judge the results. When outsourcing, seek technical advice from experts with specific experience in the area of cultural heritage and use digitisation service providers with specific experience in working with cultural heritage or in other similar or relevant areas.