Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook, and: Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (review)

Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook, Stuart D. Lee. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2001. 294 p. $55. (ISBN 1-55570-405-0)

Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives, ed. Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y. Rieger. Mountain View, CA: Research Libraries Group, 2000. 188 p. $80 (ISBN 0-9700225-0-6)

The possibilities of digital imaging projects are on many librarians' minds and in every library budget. Many libraries have developed projects to increase access to unique or popular holdings and are researching the use of digitized resources in scholarship and preservation. Because the stakes are high and costly, other libraries are tentative about starting programs or feel unsure about the direction their programs should take. Current digital imaging information can be found on the Web, through publications by university libraries and nonprofit organizations, but few electronic guides take a holistic view of concepts and theories that inform the process of beginning a digital imaging project or program. Two recent books, Digital Imaging: a Practical Handbook and Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives, provide comprehensive guidance from different points of view. These books are worthy additions to the information available to the librarian or information professional and add to the ongoing discourse about digital imaging.

Stuart Lee's Digital Imaging is meant for "librarian, project managers or students who are coming to this area as relative beginners. They will want to know what the main questions and issues surrounding digital imaging are at present and to get a realistic overview of a project from its beginning to the final delivery" (p. xii). Lee is the Head of the Centre for Humanities Computing at Oxford University Computing Services and has a great deal of experience in digital library projects. The structure of the book mirrors the course of a digital imaging project, describing the decisions to be made at each step. The book begins by addressing fundamental but basic questions, such as "what is digital imaging?", "why digitize?", and how to start a project. The second chapter describes the steps taken to decide on materials to digitize: instigating, assessing, and selecting.

The heart and strength of the book is the ensuing "how to" chapters, the third chapter containing practical discussions of image formats and software, analyzing the physical characteristics of source items, reasons for the lack of standards for digital images, and how to decide on imaging standards for one's own library. The next chapter continues the "how to" section of the book, touching on workflow, costs, outsourcing, benchmarking, and quality assurance. Lee finishes his handbook with a final chapter that encompasses cataloging, delivery and the completion of the project. Included are short discussions of metadata formats, SGML/XML advances, image database software, and the creation of derivatives for access. The book includes a short section on digital archiving, and remarks on the structure and creation of digitization staff and programs.

Lee's handbook is well written and direct and he succeeds in breaking down the broad subject areas into manageable chunks. Lee describes hardware, software, file formats, and how to decide among them clearly and simply. The use of case studies and workflow diagrams for imaging allows the reader to see how digital imaging projects are planned and conducted. The best parts of the book are focused on the process of imaging and the choices to be made before a document faces a scanner. Since these are the parts of the digital imaging project that seem the most intimidating to new librarians, it is gratifying to have an up-to-date book for guidance, rather than searching through dozens of web pages. Lee's book covers a great deal of basic material in a simple way that cuts through technical jargon for a layperson.

While this is a very good book...