MPLP and its impact on digitization

I'm attending the Northwest Archivists/Western round-up meeting in downtown Seattle. It's day two; I hope summarize some of the sessions that I've attended. Currently, I'm attending one on MPLP (more product, less process) and archival digitization projects.

The rationale behind MPLP is described in this core article. Shaun Sutton of the University of Pacific described the application of MPLP to a digital collection of Muir photographs, journals, drawings, and correspondence. .

One of the trends in digitization projects is from "boutique" to "industrial" digitization projects, with the latter marked by less high quality images and less detailed metadata. For example, for the Muir journals collection: no additional analyses or descriptions of handwritten materials that are placed online. That is, there is no transcription placed online for handwritten materials - the descriptive metadata typically includes only a title. Sutton noted that while this is not ideal, it's simply a question of resources, given the expense of the transcription process.

Sutton concluded by advocating for MPLP, particularly in image creation. For example, there are methods for rapidly digitizing materials on microfilm - and typically, the most valuable materials were microfilmed in the first place. The archivist/special collections librarian has the responsibility to determine when the "full-on," boutique treatment.

Mary Ellings reported on UC Berkeley's changing digital collections program, which are shaped in part by external factors such as mass digitization projects by vendors such as Google and Microsoft, and changing user expectations. These factors led to a greater focus upon access, and less upon preservation, in digitization work.