Introduction

Dalhousie Libraries works with external service providers to digitize analog and digital audiovisual items (e.g., U-matic, Betacam, VHS, DAT). The Libraries typically outsources audiovisual digitization on a project basis.
Procurement of digitization services is guided by the University's Procurement Policy. Procurement requires a budget, a designated Project Manager, a project charter with defined goals and objectives, and a project team with defined roles and responsibilities.
Vendors digitize AV items in small and medium-sized batches, but the overall workflow is more like a high-volume "factory" operation described in the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives Guidelines for the Preservation of Video Recordings (IASA-TC 06, Part D, Section D.1.1.2).
External digitization jobs often include a variety of formats. For example, a shipment containing videocassettes may also include audio reels and 16 mm film reels.
Audiovisual items are often found within multimedia archival fonds that include textual records, photographs, and other material that is normally digitized in-house. See other sections of the Digitization Handbook as necessary.
Audiovisual items cannot be digitized through the Libraries' Archives Document Delivery Service.

Digitization Handbook