Request accessible format of this publication.
Benchmarks and quality assurance
Responsibility, process and equipment
Assign responsibility and train staff
It is essential that all staff members understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to benchmarking and quality assurance. These roles may include:
| Task | This is usually the responsibility of... |
|---|---|
| Setting benchmarks, testing them and defining and testing processes that will enable benchmarks to be met | The project manager in liaison with relevant stakeholders, service providers etc. |
| Undertaking defined processes so that benchmarks are met | Staff members involved in digitisation |
| Undertaking quality assurance checking of digital images | Staff members (may be different to the staff members who undertook the digitisation) |
Undertaking additional quality assurance checking of digital images to promote consistency. Note: May be required where a number of staff members are involved in quality assurance. | Supervisory staff |
| Checking that other program benchmarks are met | The project manager |
Staff members need to be adequately trained and supported to meet their roles and responsibilities. Assessing digital quality assurance can be subjective so training is needed to guarantee consistent results. Get more information on Staffing digitisation projects.
Some quality assurance may be undertaken by service providers in accordance with agreed parameters. It is essential that some quality checking is also undertaken by your organisation at regular intervals to ensure quality standards are maintained.
Process benchmarks and checks
Your organisation should establish procedures for the digitisation process and make them available to relevant staff. These should outline exactly what steps need to be taken to meet agreed quality benchmarks and any acceptable variations from normal processes.
It is likely that amendments will be made to processes during implementation. These should result in changes to procedures that are made known to staff.
Digitisation procedures (or separate quality assurance procedures) should outline the nature, degree and regularity of quality assurance measures. The procedures should be approved by senior management. Get more information on Policies, procedures, standards and documentation.
Your organisation may also choose to make its processes and procedures subject to a quality assurance review at a later date in the project.
If outsourcing, relevant process benchmarks should be communicated to service providers.
Equipment benchmarks and checks
Your organisation will need to make some decisions regarding the image quality and technical standards required before purchasing digitisation equipment. Indeed, these can be useful criteria to assess what hardware and software to purchase. Get more information on Benchmarks for digital image quality.
Once purchased, equipment needs to be checked periodically, cleaned and tested to ensure that hardware and software is well maintained and operating effectively. Otherwise digital image quality may suffer.
Example:
Scanners become dirty over time with continual use. If they are not clean, they can start adding lines to digital images.
Scanners should be correctly calibrated to ensure that the digital images can meet quality benchmarks and existing standards. They will need to be re-calibrated at various intervals.
The frequency of checks will depend on the volume of use. Checks should be documented.
If the digitisation is outsourced, the service provider will determine what equipment is needed to guarantee that the images will meet your quality benchmarks.