Assessment:Costs

DLF Cost Assessment Working Group

The Cost Assessment group’s primary task is to collect, aggregate, and share data on the time it takes to perform various tasks involved in the digitization process to help with project planning and benchmarking. When the group formed at the 2014 DLF Forum, we found few practical resources geared towards helping the community determine the cost of digitization. To help address this gap, we built a Digitization Cost Calculator Digitization Cost Calculator that allows individuals to enter information about a project and get back an estimate of the staffing costs and time needed to complete it based on real data from the community.

Get Involved

Contribute Data

We are always looking for more data! Please click here for instructions on how to collect and contribute data to the Digitization Cost Calculator.

Membership

The Cost Assessment working group welcomes new members. Ongoing member duties include quarterly review of recent Cost Calculator data submissions. Those who would like to work on new projects or expansions of existing projects are welcome. If you are interested in helping us collect data for the Digitization Cost Calculator, please join our Digital Library Assessment Google Group and speak up!

Meetings

Meeting Time: Monday on the third Friday, 11-11:50am (PT)

2018 Agendas and Meeting Notes

Connection Information: https://clirdlf.zoom.us/j/596153583

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       US: +1 408 740 3766  or +1 646 876 9923  or +1 669 900 6833 
   Meeting ID: 596 153 583
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Digitization Cost Calculator

The Cost Assessment Working Group's primary project has been to build and maintain the Digitization Cost Calculator. The source code for the calculator is available via the Calculator's GitHub repository.

2018 Work

The group’s initial goal for 2018 is to survey the community and conduct user interviews and user testing of the calculator. We plan to use the information captured from the community to help plan and prioritize our future work.

2017 Work

2017 focused on making improvements to the Calculator. We organized the second annual Day of Data II in July to collect additional community data. We also added a number of [calculator enhancements calculator enhancements], including the addition of new fields and new features.

2016 Work

The data definitions authored by the cost assessment working group informed a modified structure of the calculator with expanded capabilities that was completed in 2016 with the assistance of Wayne Graham, Technical Director at CLIR and DLF. We needed at least one set of data in each of the 20 categories, as well as for each type of image capture device and for each level of metadata creation and quality control to support the modified structure. We gathered 85 data submissions in summer of 2016 with a Day of Data campaign, spent the fall reviewing and normalizing submissions, and released the 2.0 version of the calculator on November 7, 2016.

2015 Work

In 2014 a beta version of a Library Digitization Cost Calculator was developed to assist organizations in estimating the costs for digitizing collections and initiate a conversation at the 2014 DLF Forum around cost assessment in digital libraries. The original Digitization Cost Calculator was built as a proof of concept and contains data from only a handful of institutions. In spring of 2014, the Cost Assessment working group of the DLF Assessment Interest Group was subsequently founded. This group was tasked with drafting best practices and guidelines for the collection of time data for various digitization processes, which are used to standardize collection of such data in the field as well as to guide data submissions to the Digital Cost Calculator. The guidelines and definitions are organized according to some of the typical stages of a library project.

In August 2015, the group produced wire frames showing the planned interface and functionality of the Digitization Cost Calculator 2.0, as well as wireframes of how results would appear.

In September 2015, the group released a call for data submissions using the new guidelines and a new data submission form.

Publication Information

• Cost Assessment Bibliography
• Best practices and guidelines for the collection of time data for digitization processes

Project Team

2018

• Joyce Chapman, Duke University (co-coordinator)
• Chrissy Rissmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara (co-coordinator)
• Wayne Graham, CLIR (technical lead on Cost Calculator)
• David Bliss, University of Texas at Austin
• Greg Davis, Iowa State University
• Ann Hanlon, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Deirdre Joyce, Syracuse University
• Sarah Severson, McGill University Library
• Gabriella Williams, University of Miami
• Dan Zellner, Northwestern University

2017

• Joyce Chapman, Duke University (coordinator)
• Wayne Graham, CLIR (technical lead on Cost Calculator)
• Ann Hanlon, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Deirdre Joyce, Syracuse University
• Genya O'Gara, VIVA
• Chrissy Rissmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Sarah Severson, McGill University Library
• Dan Zellner, Northwestern University

2016

• Joyce Chapman, Duke University, (coordinator)
• Wayne Graham, CLIR (technical lead on Cost Calculator)
• Jane Davis, Saint Louis Federal Reserve Bank
• Ann Hanlon, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Kinza Masood, University of Utah
• Genya O'Gara, VIVA
• Chrissy Rissmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Sarah Severson, McGill University Library
• Emily Shaw, Ohio State University Libraries
• Dan Zellner, Northwestern University

2015

• Joyce Chapman, Duke University, (coordinator)
• Kinza Masood, University of Utah
• Chrissy Rissmeyer, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Dan Zellner, Northwestern University

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