Book Digitzation Project Sample Email

[Dear Faculty Member--]

Recently you requested that the Library digitize the book, [book title or series]. I am happy to inform you that your request has been approved. The Library's Digital Library Production Services (DLPS) will be managing this digitization project, and will be in touch with you soon as to the timeframe for completion.

I have been asked to relay the following information to you to be sure we have the same understanding of this project:

In order to obtain the best possible electronic version, we need to be able to have it converted by our contracted vendor and must work within a set schedule. When the digital version is returned to DLPS they will check it for major errors in keyboarding and then make the text available and searchable via our standard text-delivery interface (see standard search interface at [URL pending]). Should you have any specialized needs that are not met by this standard interface, we should speak further about contacting one of the Library's Electronic Centers for development of enhanced tools and/or interfaces. The Library will agree to archive the work and make the content available as long as is reasonably possible, providing it can be migrated to new technologies as necessary. Migration may affect the look, feel, and functionality of the work. All works will be made available to at least the UVA community, but preferably without any access restrictions.

[In the instance where a faculty member is paying for the keyboarding, please also include the following paragraph.]

[begin insert]

The current rate for keyboarding is .54 per 1000 keystrokes (approx. $1.25/pg for 2000 characters a page). It would greatly facilitate the conversion process if we could have a copy of the book in the correct edition that could be sent to the keyboarding vendor, rather than sending the Library's cataloged copy. However, please understand that the vendor will have to disbind the book in order to scan and keyboard it -- in other words, they will completely take the book apart. If this is a problem, we can use the Library's copy that will remain intact but will add to your digitizing costs by .50 a page.

[end insert]

There are several questions I have about your project:

• What category does the book fall into: prose, poetry, drama, letter, newspaper, journal article, or dictionary/encyclopedia?
• Are there languages other than English or non-Western characters in the text?
• If the publication date of the work is after 1923, do you have written permission to digitize? If so, please provide me with a copy of permission statement from the copyright holder so that I may forward it to DLPS. Note that any publication published before 1923 is in the public domain, and no permission statement is required.

Thank you once again for suggesting your book for our growing Digital Library collection. My colleagues and I are excited about working with you to make this text an electronic reality, one that I'm sure many students and researchers will appreciate.