Once the decision has been made to go ahead with a particular digitisation project, then that project enters the “Production Phase,” where the digitisation project is actually carried out. We are specialists in the digitisation of large archival collections and can provide a number of services associated with the various processes required in the digitisation life cycle depending on the outcomes of the “Decision Making Phase”. These services include:
- Media Capture – Whether it is capturing 3D museum objects, glass plate negatives, photos, slides, video, rare books and manuscripts, maps and charts, or anything else, we can assist, or if we can’t, we know someone who can. We have the experience to set up the most efficient workflow whether on your premises or on ours.
- Media Processing – Depending on the media that has been captured and its condition, some processing of files may be required whether that is OCR on books and manuscripts, colour correcting and removing dust and scratches from scanned photographic prints or some other process. We have a the team to perform these services, getting your media files to the right standard so they are of maximum use to your intended audience.
- Media Migration – You may have media files that are in an old file format or on archaic storage media such as floppy disks such that you can no longer access them. We are able to migrate your files to archival formats and storage media such that they will be readable for years to come.
- Metadata Capture – Capturing an image or audio file into digital form is only half the job done. A media file is only as valuable as the associated information that is captured with it. It is the information that makes the file findable by and useful to your audience. One of the most challenging areas in any digitisation project is the capturing of associated information with each captured media file. Using xml based open metadata standards that have broad acceptance in your industry, such as IPTC, METS and PREMIS, Africa Media Online’s metadata capture service is either able to provide you efficient systems for your staff to capture metadata yourselves or to supply the person power to capture the metadata.
- Keywording Service – In large digital databases finding the right media files is greatly aided by accurate keywording by keyworders familiar with the subject matter, but also familiar with how your target audience tends to search for content. Our experienced keyworders are able to do free text keywording or use any controlled vocabulary to associate keywords with media files. Keyworders are also able to use the African Archival Thesaurus (AAT). Based on the Australian Pictorial Thesaurus, the AAT has been Africanized by Africa Media Online over the past five years and translated into the major trade languages of Africa. This means that a media file keyworded using the AAT can be searched for in Swahili, Arabic, French, English or Portuguese.
Above: Top right to bottom left – Digitising 3,500 museum objects at Vukani Museum, Eshowe, KZN, South Africa; Digitising over 10,000 images at the International Library of African Music, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa; Keywording images from the African Image Pipeline project at the Africa Media Online office in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa; Retouching images in our digitisation unit at Africa Media Online’s office in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa.