digitizationblog

Tom Blake, Digital Imaging Production Manager at Boston Public Library, offers this humorous but realistic formula for calculating the cost of digitizing a given quantity of print materials:


{[(linear feet) x (administrative imperative)2] x [1/(item level records)]/(distinct material formats)/metadata staff hours] x [public domain items/(orphaned works - copyrighted materials]/(risk assessment)2] x [(unbound flat items < 11x17)/4) + (bound pages/2) + (tightly bound pages) + (3 dimensional items x 4)]} x net value of donor/300 dpi


Posted with Tom's permission.