When most people hear the word "digitization," they think "scanning," and it is true that scanning is a crucial step in the digitization process. Digitization is much more than scanning, though. Digitization is the creation of a new information resource, whereby a physical resource is imaged, processed, enriched with descriptive metadata, and made available as a digital object. This undertaking improves remote access to, and usability of, a physical, analog resource. Enriching a digital object with metadata allows resources/assets to become easily discoverable in search engines and can help to contextualize material. The final stage in digitization is digital preservation. More on this can be found in the Digital Preservation guide here.
If you have material that you would like to transform into digital objects or publish on DigitalGeorgetown, please contact digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu for a consultation.