I would add that the costs can increase depending on other factors, e.g. the
level of color management (e.g. very consistent color and accurate to the
object when printed in a standardized manner, for instance); the management
system used to store, access, and use the images; the preparation of
metadata about the images; and also, if you include the time of art
handlers, conservators, and others involved in the movement and tracking of
the objects.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gray, Peter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 5:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Budget for digitizing collection


> I was wondering if there is an established formula 
> for calculating the rough cost per record.  
> 
> Thanks,
> Catherine Dean

By far the biggest cost in any digitisation project is the cost of the staff
to undertake it. It can be an immensely time-consuming process, and we found
that it was only possible using dedicated staff hired for the purpose. The
cost in time and money of managing such a project should not be
underestimated.

I don't know how useful this will be, but in the UK SCRAN has used a figure
of £25.25 (just under $40 at the exchange rate as I write) as the amount
they gave for the creation of a "digitised asset" (that is, a digital image
plus accompanying metadata). In our projects we found this was sufficient
not only to cover the costs of photography and digitisation of images, audio
and video, but also to cover the staffing costs -- though of course that
depends how much you pay the staff -- as well as buy them the PCs to work
on. We're currently undertaking two projects which will produce some 13,000
"multimedia resources", 80 education packs and 6 web site essays, funded by
grants totalling £473,000 ($747,000), and employing 11 people. The project
timescale is 18 months.

We separated photography from digitisation, using professional conventional
slide photography for objects and copying. The slides were then digitised by
a commercial company. Costs are currently running at about £6 ($9.50) for
photography and £1.30 ($2) for digitisation and delivery on CD. Sound and
video digitisation was somewhat more expensive, but costs have come down
recently.

Pete
-- 
Peter M Gray
Museums Officer


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