Digitization needs quality control
In today’s digital age, institutions around the world—from libraries and museums to government agencies and universities—are racing to digitize their collections. These projects often involve tens or even hundreds of millions of pages of historical documents, photographs, maps, and other materials. The goal is simple: preserve the past and make it accessible to the public.
But behind the scenes, digitization is anything but simple. It’s a complex process that requires careful planning, specialized equipment, and—most importantly—rigorous quality control.
What Is Quality Control in Digitization?
Quality control (QC) is the process of checking and verifying that digitized materials meet specific standards. It ensures that every scanned page is clear, complete, and accurately represents the original. Quality assurance (QA), a related concept, focuses on building systems and workflows that prevent errors from happening in the first place.
Together, QA and QC are the backbone of any successful digitization effort. Without them, digital collections can end up riddled with missing pages, blurry images, incorrect metadata, or files that are inaccessible to users.
Why It’s Especially Important at Scale
When digitizing a few hundred pages, it’s relatively easy to spot and fix mistakes. But when the project involves millions of pages, the stakes—and the risks—are much higher.
Imagine scanning 100 million pages of government records. If even 0.1% of those pages are flawed, that’s 100,000 errors. These could include:
- Pages scanned upside down or sideways
- Missing or duplicated pages
- Poor image quality that makes text unreadable
- Incorrect file names or metadata
- Inaccessible formats for users with disabilities
These kinds of issues don’t just frustrate users—they can compromise the integrity of the entire collection. That’s why large-scale digitization projects require robust QA and QC systems from start to finish.
The Human and Technical Side of Quality Control
Quality control in digitization is both an art and a science. It involves trained technicians who inspect images, metadata, and file formats, as well as automated tools that flag potential issues.
Here’s a simplified look at how QC works in a typical digitization workflow:
1. Document Preparation
Before scanning begins, materials are inspected for damage, organized, and prepped. Fragile items may need special handling, and oversized materials like maps or foldouts are flagged for separate processing.
2. Scanning and Image Capture
High-resolution scanners are calibrated to ensure consistent image quality. Technicians select settings like resolution, brightness, and contrast based on the type of material.
3. Image Review
After scanning, images are reviewed to check for clarity, completeness, and correct orientation. Any issues—like skewed pages or poor contrast—are corrected.
4. Metadata Verification
Metadata (information about each file, like title, date, and subject) is checked for accuracy. This is crucial for searchability and organization.
5. Accessibility Checks
Files are reviewed to ensure they meet accessibility standards, such as Section 508 compliance, which helps users with disabilities access digital content.
6. Final Review and Delivery
Before files are delivered or published, a final QC check ensures everything meets the required standards. Any errors are documented and corrected.
Common Quality Benchmarks
Digitization projects often follow industry standards to measure quality. One widely used benchmark is the FADGI (Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative) star rating system, which evaluates image quality based on resolution, color accuracy, and other factors. A 3-star rating, for example, indicates high-quality images suitable for long-term preservation.
Other benchmarks include:
- DPI (dots per inch): Higher DPI means better image resolution.
- Bit depth: Determines how many shades of gray or color are captured.
- File format: TIFF and PDF/A are common formats for archival-quality images.
- Metadata standards: Such as Dublin Core or MODS, which ensure consistency across collections.
Challenges in Large-Scale Projects
Scaling up quality control isn’t easy. When dealing with millions of pages, manual review of every image is often impractical. That’s where automation and smart workflows come in.
Many organizations use batch processing tools that automatically check for common issues, like blank pages or incorrect file names. Others use machine learning to flag images that look distorted or incomplete.
Still, human oversight remains essential. Automated tools can catch obvious errors, but trained technicians are better at spotting subtle problems—like faint text or misaligned pages—that machines might miss.
The Cost of Poor Quality
Skipping or skimping on quality control can lead to serious problems:
- Loss of trust: Users may question the reliability of the collection.
- Legal risks: Inaccurate records can lead to compliance issues.
- Wasted resources: Fixing errors after the fact is costly and time-consuming.
- Accessibility barriers: Poor formatting can exclude users with disabilities.
In contrast, strong QA and QC systems help ensure that digitized materials are accurate, accessible, and useful for years to come.
Building a Culture of Quality
Quality control isn’t just a checklist—it’s a mindset. Successful digitization projects build quality into every step of the process. That means:
- Training staff to recognize and fix issues
- Documenting procedures and standards
- Using tools that support consistent quality
- Reviewing and improving workflows over time
It also means listening to users. Feedback from researchers, historians, and the public can help identify gaps and improve future digitization efforts.
Final Thoughts
Digitization is about more than turning paper into pixels. It’s about preserving knowledge, making it accessible, and ensuring that future generations can trust what they find. In large-scale projects, where millions of pages are at stake, quality control is not optional—it’s essential.
Whether you’re a librarian, archivist, IT specialist, or simply someone who values access to information, understanding the role of QA and QC in digitization helps you appreciate the care and effort behind the digital collections we rely on every day.
Leave a Reply