Digitisation: Taking stock1

The technicalities of digitisation are now fairly well understood, but what is less well understood is the range of issues that need to be considered before committing to a digitisation programme, if it is not to meet the fate of the BBC Doomsday Project. This article discusses a range of these issues in order to place digitisation firmly in a business and political context, including: why digitise, what to digitise, the audience for and packaging and discovery of digitised material, and finally the sustainability of the whole enterprise.