Any digitisation project will require decisions on how and why to undertake the digitisation. Several factors should be considered, but the following may be regarded as central for the planning of the digitisation process: 1) the type of material to be digitised, 2) the size of the material to be digitised, 3) the state in which the material to be digitised is in, and 4) the target group for the digitised material, i.e. who will be using the digitised result in the end? These factors will all influence the selection and prioritisation within the digitisation project, as also what methods to use and the workflow setup.

There are various methods for digitising heritage assets, from simple tools that can be fitted into a smartphone to technically complex and expensive devices that require considerable economic resources and expertise. In the third unit of this course, you will find instructions for some of the more simple tools and techniques available. You can also search for yourself, e.g. on Youtube. An introduction to using simple digital photos to create digital 3D models can be found here, and a bit more complex way to produce 3D models from laser data is described here.

Once the digitisation is performed, an essential issue is how to store, maintain and make continuously available the digitised material. Here, a range of solutions exist while, at the same time, significant challenges remain to be solved. In a European context, the digital archive platform Europeana is a great example.

Digital archiving has become a crucial topic in archaeology since most fieldwork, so collecting new primary archaeological source material nowadays utilises digital tools. Thus much of the data collected is in digital form from the start. In this thematic issue of the Journal of Internet Archaeology, aspects of digital archiving in Archaeology are discussed, with case studies from various countries.