How Much of the Worlds Fragile Collections Has Been Digitized?

p strongDigitization of ancient and fragile materials remains incomplete even among institutions already committed to difficult imaging work./strong/p p Primary Research Group surveyed 25 academic libraries and museums in the United States, Canada, Europe and the developing world. No special-collections librarian in the sample reported that more than 30% of the institution's ancient, rare or fragile holdings had been digitized. Institutions in higher tuition ranges were more likely to plan digitization of most or all such materials./p p The figure reflects more than slow scanning. Fragile objects may require conservation assessment, custom supports, specialized lighting, insurance, transport decisions, rights review and descriptive work. A single percentage can also conceal large differences among manuscripts, fragments, bound volumes, three-dimensional objects and oversized material./p p Institutions should define progress by priority as well as volume. Research demand, condition, uniqueness, representational value and the risk of physical handling can guide ion. Recording estimated preparation, imaging, metadata and storage effort makes projects easier to fund and compare./p p The market opportunity is substantial, but digitization should not be framed as a race to 100%. The better objective is a defensible sequence that expands access while reducing risk to the materials most valuable or vulnerable./p p  /p