Aspiration to implementation: building an enterprise digitization capability at the University of Melbourne

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to use the guiding strategy, Melbourneâ™’s Scholarly Information Future, which is a ten-year strategy that identifies in its aspirations the importance of building effective access to the rich cultural, scholarly and research collections of the University of Melbourne and acknowledges the critical role that digitization plays in achieving this vision. The University of Melbourne has a rich, complex and ultimately voluminous array of cultural, scholarly and research material that is of great interest and value to the its community, scholarly researchers and the global community. Since the strategy endorsement in 2008, the authors have progressively moved from a digitization environment that was uncoordinated, ad hoc and lacked centralized expertise that led to a proliferation of isolated, under-resourced areas producing inconsistent and indifferent quality images to our goal of an exemplar digitization framework, program and enterprise capability for the University to leverage.

Design/methodology/approach

Case study of the journey taken by the University of Melbourne in building an enterprise digitization capability.

Findings

This article outlines the journey and the approach in building this capability in a challenging economic environment, the engagement strategies to gain support and funding, skills and equipment and the unique challenges of the digitization of a diverse array of University collections. Second, it also explores digitization as transformation and outlines some of the infinite and extraordinary possibilities created from digitized content of library collections.

Originality/value

This article will be of value to institutions that are considering taking similar steps.

Citation

McRostie, D. (2014), "Aspiration to implementation: building an enterprise digitization capability at the University of Melbourne", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 11-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2014-0015