About the Digitization Centre

In alignment with the Libraries values, the Digitization Centre digitizes material to:

• Empower students and faculty by providing access to diverse, innovative, and relevant digitized materials
• Respond to evolving needs of our community by providing inclusive and safe digital spaces and collections
• Innovate by leveraging technology and expertise and enhance access and the user experience
• Respect the rights and knowledge of all communities, particularly Indigenous cultures, by fostering respectful partnerships and agreements in digitization efforts
• Collaborate with partners to build collections that reflect and support the research interests of the UM community

For projects and special initiatives, we digitize materials that: 

• Support the Libraries in delivering its core services
• Build on the Libraries' existing collections, research data, scholarship, and archival records
• Align with the University's Strategic Plan
• Are unique and not already available online
• Support teaching, education, and research at the University 
• Have significant research or historic value
• Promote respectful partnerships, collaboration, and access
• Document under-represented subjects in our collections
• May benefit from digitization and additional services such as optical character recognition, transcriptions, preservation, or public access
• Enhance accessibility for all users
• Do not have significant restrictions in place, such as copyright, licenses, or other terms of use or access that prevent the materials from being digitized and made accessible

For digitization on-demand, we digitize any materials requested by individuals provided that:

• The requestor is permitted to access the materials
• There are no restrictions, such as copyright, licenses or other terms of use or access that prevent the materials from being digitized and made accessible to the user
  • Some exemptions may apply for alternate format requests

Formats we digitize

The Digitization Centre is currently able to digitize the following formats:

• Books and other bound materials
• Unbound textual records
• Photographs
• Large formats (blueprints, maps, architectural drawings, etc.)
• Film (Standard 8mm, Super 8mm, Double 8mm, 9.5mm, Standard 16mm, Super 16mm, 17.5mm, 28mm, Standard 35mm, Super 35mm, 65/70mm 5-perf, VistaVision, and IMAX 8/15-perf)
• Slides
• Negatives

Many factors determine how we proceed with a digitization request. These factors include:

• Capacity: 
  • Does the Centre have the equipment and software needed to digitize and process the materials?
  • Does the Centre require additional resources (staffing, funding, etc.) to fulfil the request?
• Rights and restrictions:
  • Are the items under copyright or under a specific license that prevents or limits digitization?
  • Are there restrictions or terms of access and use?
  • Are there cultural protocols that prevent the items from being digitized or made accessible? 
  • Is there private or sensitive information in the records?
• Physical condition:
  • Are the materials too fragile to be digitized safely?
  • Will digitization help reduce future damage to the original records?

If a digitization request can be undertaken, the Centre's staff will then work to determine the best equipment, standards, and workflows to use to ensure efficiency and quality throughout the digitization process.