In the area of selection for digitization, guidelines are established in Selecting Research Collections for Digitization by Dan Hazen, Jeffrey Horrell, and Jan Merill-Oldham published by the Commission on Preservation and Access in 1998. The authors of this work assert that selection decisions should be based upon the intellectual value of collections, the number and location of existing and potential users, the nature of use, the nature of materials (including the format and how they are described, delivered, and archived), how the project relates to other efforts, intellectual property issues, and cost.

In recent experience at USM Libraries, work done in selection has proven to be a foundation for more efficient workflow throughout the digitization process, as well as a basis for statistics needed for reports to the funding agency. In addition, each characteristic of an original may have an effect on the digitization process and any final products. Staff involved in selection of materials for digitization should consider the following questions and make note of any characteristics that could have an impact at future stages of the digitization process.

Characteristics that may be noted:

• What type of material is it? Paper, film (positive or negative), photograph, artwork, video, audio, 3-D object, 2-D objects like textiles, items of mixed materials (Ex: scrapbooks, or pages with both text and images), glass negative, typescripts, etc.
• What condition is the object in? Does it need to be cleaned? Is it flat or has it bowed (a particular problem with photographs, which shouldn't just be slapped on the scanner and flattened that way)?
• What is the size of the object? Is it small enough to fit easily on a letter-sized scanner, or will it need to be captured some other way?
• Is the item bound, mounted, or framed in some way? Can it be unbound, unmounted, unframed?
• Is there color in the object? How important is this color information to your final product? (For example, in book typescripts showing changes marked in color by the author, the color information would be important.) Should the image be captured in color or is black and white alone sufficient?
• What is the tonal range of the material? (Continuous tone like a photo? High contrast like a typical typescript?)
• How fragile is the object? Can it be handled safely? (For example, glass negatives or crumbling Civil War letters need special handling.)
• How light-sensitive is the object? How heat-sensitive is it? The scanning process can subject an item to high levels of light and heat.
• Are you interested in digitizing the item for its value as an object or for the value of its content? Artifact vs. content (i.e., do you want to preserve the "feel" of the archival item, or just provide access to the content, or both?)
• What are the relevant characteristics of your original materials? (This includes physical characteristics, but it also includes informational characteristics, such as the smallest meaningful detail in a photograph.)
• Are there potential copyright or privacy issues that need to be resolved before the digital surrogate of this item can be made publicly available? Even if the item donor has given permission, there may still be relevant issues to resolve.