DIGITIZATION: Pros and Cons
by
MILSGROS SANTOS-ONG
“Information and Communications
Technology in Library Trends, Security & Ethics”
Kimberly Hotel, Malate, Manila, April 28, 2006
Libraries must provide the best services to its users or clientle. To
meet user expectations, libraries in the past have updated their collection.
In today’s challenge, we must not only update our collection but we must
also provide better access to information through the new information
highway. This is may be done by way of digitization. Digitization in
libraries is today’s response towards a faster delivery of information to its
users via internet or intranet. For developing countries like the Philippines
where internet facilities are not available even in government offices within
Metro Manila or other cities, CD technology in another option to access
digitized information.
Information needed may be accessed via the internet in full text or
in the form it was digitized (such as bibliographic), via the internet 24/7 or
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week at any place in the world where
there are internet facilities. Further advantage is multiple and simultaneous
access to the information. Another advantage may even be for the
preservation of the library and priceless archival resources and maintaining
there usability and accessibility to the users. This is supported by Paul
Ayris in his article “Guidance for Selecting Materials for digitization,”
where he stated that one of the gains of digitizing original materials is the
creation of value-added features which will enhance access to damaged
materials.” It may be referred to as digital archives.
In developed countries like the United States, digitization of
information in libraries is not new. What is new is the digitization of
materials, books, manuscripts, etc. housed in library collections. This
started in December 2004 when Google announced the Google Print Library
which will digitize print materials from the collection of five major libraries
– Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, the University of Oxford and the New York Public Library. \
The topic assigned to me is the Pros and Cons or advantages and
disadvantages of Digitization. The advantages brought by this new
technology was clearly stated in an article in the Bulletin last February 13,
2006 - “nowadays, going digital is no longer a matter of choice. It is a
necessity.” Yes, indeed digitization is a necessity. This is specially so for
special libraries. Other advantages may be considered as less meaningful to
other libraries and they are follows:
 Space – rack-mounted, enough memory to store 10 times all
the books in the UP Law Library
 “Savings” as to Acquisition costs” - At times, this is
considered as long term - WESTLAW
 Manpower
 “handling” of material (books or documents)
 Security  Property Accountability
Frankly speaking, I could not think of a disadvantage. Some articles
list down copyright and management policies as disadvantages. Its effect as
to copyright will involve a separate topic for discussion. From my personal
experience, it is not a problem because what we are digitizing are public
records/official government documents and these are not covered by
copyright. Other materials such as the National Administrative Register,
Philippine Law Journal are covered by MOA. In other words take into
consideration the copyright law and take measures not to infringer it. For
our future plans, as to books, negotiations are being made with its authors.
Pros and Cons may also be construed as for or against. It is every
librarians dream to be abreast with the latest technology. At times may even
be considered as a “status symbol.” My guess librarians who do not know
how to use computers are those against digitization. Insecurity comes into
the picture. There are also some instances when Librarians may have seen
and realized the great advantages of digitization but they are against it due
to their limitations such as funds, technical support and the support of their
institution. These three limitations are referred to as managerial, technical
and financial issues in an article in the Library Preservation at Harvard.
It is still a fact the management even at times in the academic
environment, say that they need the library, they could not live without the
library. However when it comes to priorities including budget, the library is
one of the least priority. Funds is a very important consideration as to
whether to digitize or not, determine its form or digitization accessible via
the internet or intranet, in-house or outsourcing, etc. Funds will be a criteria
whether to hire technical support, outsource or train existing staff. Funds
and the librarians’ sound proposal will be considered by management as to
whether to digitize or not. It is at the point where the librarian my know how
to market or sell his project to management and get it approved. These
three limitations are vital to the success of a digitization project.
It is basic that the key or the initial step in any activity, project and
related activity is Planning.. Planning, all the above limitations enumerated
and the librarians’ contribution are TOGETHER the ingredients needed to
achieve success.
In a digitization project, planning includes selection guidelines.
Selection covers:
 Information to digitize - rationale as to why they must be
included
 Hardware and software requirements
 Connections - Internet or intranet
 Connectivity – Broadband, wireless, cable connections, dial up
or via LAN and even CD
 Technical staff
 Location
There are available studies conducted abroad which provides reports,
and guides on the planning and selection of digitization projects that may be
accessed online and me be considered as a theoretical support for your
digitization plans. Some of these guidelines are also available in the web.
As a precautionary measure, these guideline should stay as guidelines. One
must adjust them depending upon the existing condition in the Philippines
and in your own institution and organization. Digitization may be in image,
audio, text and hybrid.
Library Preservation at Harvard Digitization
Resources outlines criteria to consider:
 Image Digitization
Guides to digitizing images
File Formats
Systems Evaluation criteria
Quality standards and reports
Technical metadata: Images
 Text Digitization
Guides to digitizing text
Bookscanners
Page Scanners
OCR
Structural metadata
 Audio Digitization
Specifications and other resources
 Hybrid Digitization
Photography
The materials to be digitized and the form differs depending upon
the purpose, the vision/mission of each institution or organization. We now
have information, image, audio and even the entire collection of libraries.
The National Library for example have digitized images such as those of the
Official Gazettes, Constitutional Conventional Proceedings, etc. The
problem with images, word search of based on the words found in the
image of the data cannot be done. An index for these image is still needed.
So the indexing of librarians are needed. The SC E-Library use text
digitization. With this any word, paragraphs, citations, and etc. found in the
text may be retrieved through the dtsearch software, including google
search. It the Library has an index to these data that were digitized, it may
also be incorporated. For the E-Library, we have them in the Reference
Portion. If one uses the text digitization, available digitized images can
still be used but one needs to convert it to text through the OCR.
Even in the field of law whether it be in the Philippines or other parts
of the world, law libraries differs as to the thrust of materials that they
digitize. Take for example in the United States:. .
a. Washington State Attorney General’s Office Law Library –
Internal legislative
Histories of Washington state legislation, internal documents,
and
government publications (local, state and federal)
b. Maryland Law Library – Early 20th century legal treatises and
selected
Maryland task force/study commission reports
c. Civil Court of the City of New York Law Library – Newsletters
and
secondary reference materials by local authors
d. State of Oregon Law Library – Pre-statehood, territorial and
statutes
e. California Judicial Center Library – California Supreme Court
papers and
historical documents and photographs
f. State Law Library of Michigan – Michigan House and Senate
Bill analysis for
1973-1996.
Let me share with you Digitization the easy and the Filipino way, a
hands on experience via the SC E-Library
.
The SC E-Library
(http//:elibrary.supremecourt.gov.ph) was
envisioned as the online/web-based research tool in the speedy delivery of
justice. It serves the entire Judiciary - the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals,
Sandiganbayan, Court of Tax Appeals, Regional Trial Courts, Metropolitan
Trial Courts, Municipal Trial Courts and Shari'a Courts. This being so, the
materials found in the E-Library database are all sources of law in full text
digitized from Official/Primary Sources. In case of conflict in the text of
decisions and other legal information, the original printed material shall
prevail. At the onset, one can see that the materials being digitized are
documents (although some are available in book form), information and not
the textbooks or treaties. These documents are the materials needed in
decision making and the later are used for persuasive effect only. It is now
the first fully searchable web-based digital library not only in the
Philippines by the whole of Asia. It is thus accessible to all authorized
users, wherever they maybe in the Philippines and even in the world, twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week
We can say that SC E-Library started the unique way. Considering
the resources that a government office has, and the usual management
support for libraries, our initial plan was to computerize our library was
just like other major libraries, an OPAC with the books, Philippine law
journals and documents of the SC Library and a computerized inventory of
books distributed to the 75 Court Libraries and salas of the lower courts
and further envisions that it will be available in the web. This can be
translated as computerized bibliography accessible in the web. With this
plan a survey and demo of: Melissa, Athena, Adlib, Lisa, TLC and other
library system providers was conducted. This project may be similar to the
Philippine E-Library where they have the collection of its participating
library via the web and the full text of those in EBSCA subscriptions.
A major change to what is now the SC E-Library came when the
Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP) started and April 2, 2004 when
the Hon. Hon. Associate Justices Antonio T. Carpio volunteered and was
designated as Chairman of the Library and Printing Committee by virtue of
Administrative Order No. 53-2004. With these two developments, we had
first two of the three main ingredients in digitization managerial, financial
and technical. With the availability of managerial and financial support,
technical support naturally followed.
There were two major factors may be attributed to the fast and we
may safely say successful implementation of the digitization of the SC
Library:
1. Primary Materials to form part of the E-Library have already
been determined right at the start. These primary materials are the materials
are materials which are important not only by the judiciary but also the
entire legal profession, including and even the general public.
2. Managerial support – Time frame during the planning seminar
for the E-Library was 2 years - ……… The “hands on” support of Justice
Antonio T. Carpio resulted in the following advantages:
a. Web-enable text-retrieval search engine: dtSearch
 indexing
 text-retrieval
 $2,500 for web search engine and $7,500 perpetual and
unlimited right to CD search engine = P550,000 at P55
to a dollar
b. Technical details – No need for a consultant
c. Technical staff
 Facilitated the hiring of both the regular employees and
contractual
 Pirated employees from other offices of the Court and
further trained them
 Hired his own 2 technical staff to do the web
connection, maintenance and development of the ELibrary
d. Endorsed the release of funds for the procurement of
hardware,
supplies and other needs of the project
e. When government procurement take time, he “donates”
his own
funds to assure that work is continuous
In October 2004, six months after it started, a soft launching of the
CD version was held during the Philippine Judges Convention in Iloilo. A
month after or seven months, The E-Library was launched on-line on
November 19, 2004 at the Pan Pacific Hotel, Manila. CD-Roms which are
distributed to the all courts every six months. CD-Rom version is primarily
for the courts who do not have internet connection.
This may be considered as our success story. Managerial support is
the primary ingredient is the most vital ingredient. We not only have a
‘Working Chairman, ” we have a chairman who has places his whole heart,
support and even his own personal funds just to assure that the E-Library is
a success. It is safe to say that there is team effort where the Library and the
staff takes charge of the in-house digitization of the materials found in the
E-Library or the Library takes charge of the content. Justice Carpio and his
staff takes care in part, of the technical support such as website
management (he bought a server) and DT search CD preparation (CD buring
is done by the library), the management requirement endorsing the approval
of things needed such as DSL and Destiny connection, procurement of
equipment, wireless connection, including supplies.
Let me emphasize that team effort is needed for we have to accept the
fact that Library education here in the Philippines does not prepare us for
Digitization or related activity. Technical skills in needed. The traditional
staffing pattern for a library does not have this needed IT staff. These IT
skills have to be up-tot-date. I had to sacrifice the abolition of two librarian
items and convert them to Administrative Officer items (with DBM
approval) in order to be able to hire computer science graduates.
Does this mean that the Librarian is obsolete or useless. The answer
should be a resounding NO. Why did I say should be? Despite the lack of
IT skill, the Librarian must know the work to be done, supervise work being
done and make sure that one knows how to use it. With this the Librarian
can establish his place into the whole project/activity. The Librarian must
not allow the IT people rule over the entire project.
Teamwork with other institution facilitates the implementation of the
digitization project. As an example is the Memorandum of Agreement
between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Supreme Court.
Time was saved in the scanning of all the National Administrative Register
(NAR) which contains all the rules and regulations of government offices.
UP gave the Court the digitized image copy. All that we needed to do is to
convert it to text files, format it and index it readable to dtSearch. In turn,
the Court provided all the UP College of Law Professors and the Law
Library access to the E-Library. Xdeal.
This similar arrangement is being negotiated with the Department of
Foreign Affairs for complete original treaties entered into by the Philippines,
with the Records Office of Malacanang for the complete laws and
presidential issuances from 1901-1985 and DOJ for their Microfilm of the
Official Gazette. As for the later, we were supposed to buy those from the
National Library but their image files are not clear and so they could not be
converted into text files.
The E-Library did not start with a big bag and a big budget. Right at
the start, it was in-house with a P20,000 budget representing the (5) five
scanners and filling up of our 3 vacant items as “technical” staff and the
purchase if the dtsearch software was purchased, $2,500 (P137,500.00) for
web search engine and $7,500 (P412,500) perpetual and unlimited right to
CD search engine or a total of $10,000 or P550,000. Looking at this figures,
the most expensive is the software for retrieval of P550,000. However, the
cost can only be P137,500.00 if it is solely for web application. There now
companies which are offering less expensive search engines. There are some
companies who offer FREE search engine software for materials that they
digitize. One such company is Floro Foto.
After the launching in November 2004, 7 data encoders hired and 5
scanners with feeders were purchased. Two of the staff of Justice Carpio
take care of the web and other technical requisites. With the 10 full time
staff, 10 scanners and a software expense of P550,000, what have we
accomplished in one year and five months? Digitization of Supreme Court
decisions from 1996 to present and Rules and Regulations of the Court from
1973 to present. The rest will be discussed later.
To facilitate the digitization of Supreme Court decisions from 19011995 which are almost 300,000 pages, we outsourced it to Florofoto for
almost 2 million. With this amount, the contract provides that the final
output will be in two forms: 1) text file which had to comply with the format
that we have specified and 2) image file. Outsourcing has been a by line
in the news these days because of its economic value and is a solution to
managerial constraints like manpower, space etc. Outsourcing is not only in
digitization but in almost everything including even cleanliness or security
of a company. It is however important to define the work to be done and
review all output before acceptance. We were about to buy the image file of
the Official Gazette, Constitutional Convention proceedings and the
Malcolm Collection of the National Library for almost one million.
However, it turned out that the images were either blurred or dirty and they
could not be converted to text file. We had to cancel our purchase order
even though funds have been allotted.
Our contract with Floro provided 100% accuracy before acceptance.
So when they deliverthe digitized form, we proof read it and if 100%
accurate, we accept. If not, we return with the corrections. In some libraries
outsourcing is donem the librarians or their staff does the proof reading after
the scanning. In digitization, the proof reading after the scanning is the most
tedious job or the pinakamadugo”. Next is the formatting or styling.So now
you can see how much time and manpower we were able to save with the
contract with Floro. We were able to save time not only in proof reading but
also in formatting to comply with the dtsearch requirement.
.
Now that the public have seen how effective it has become, there are
requests not only from lawyers, law students and even the public here and
abroad to be able to access the E-Library. In a recent judicial reform
conference in Australia, there were request that links be made to the
Supreme Court of their won countries. With the success of the E-Library, we
are still moving forward. Before the end of the year, three big open book
scanners will be purchased for the digitization of the decisions of the Court
of Appeals which are found in 2,200 volumes of almost a thousand pages for
each volume. Next will be the Court of Tax Appeals.
Digitization is requires an tremendous amount of dedicated work.
One virtue that is needed for people involved in digitization is to be
METICULOUS throughout the process, end to finish. At times even though
information is already the web, monitoring is still done to maintain accuracy.
METICULOUS is one virtue that majority of librarian possess. Its success
however will not only double the amount of work inputted. The benefits an
exceptional library service and/or information delivery is immeasurable or
boundless.
The E-Library has a powerful search engine (Dtsearch) which allows
its users to retrieve its search in seconds. It contains all the full text digitized
sources of Philippine law and a Memorabilia of Retired Justices of the
Supreme Court as follows:
a. LAWS
 Constitutions from the Malolos Constitution to the present 1987
Constitution. It will also include a comparative presentation of
the 1935, 1973 and the 1987 Constitutions and the 1935, 1973
and 1986 Constitutional Proceedings.
 Legislative enactments from 1901 (Acts) to present (Republic
Acts)
 Treaties entered into by the Philippines from 1946 to present
 Sharia’a Law
B. JURISPRUDENCE
 Decisions, published and unpublished decisions of the
Supreme Court from 1901 to present.
.
 Resolutions of the Supreme Court are the unpublished Minute
Resolutions signed by the Clerks of Court. Those included are
those1) Extended Resolutions that resolve a motion for
reconsideration or those that explain or affirm a decision; and
(2) Administrative Matters.
 PROJECT COMUSDEC .
C. COURT ISSUANCES
 Rules of Court of the Philippines from 1918 to present
including its various amendments
 Administrative Matters
 Circulars and other issuances
D. EXECUTIVE ISSUANCES
 Presidential issuances such as Executive Orders, Administrative
Order, Memorandum Order, Memorandum Circular and
Proclamations from 1946 to present .
 Presidential issuances during Martial Law such as Letters of
Instruction, Letters of Implementation and General Orders
 National Administrative Register (NAR)
Rules and Regulations of all government agencies deposited
with the University of the Philippines College of Law pursuant
to the 1987 Revised Administrative Code
E. REFERENCES
 Benchbooks
 Manual of Clerks of Court
 Manual of Judicial Writing
 Law Journals
 Compilation of Supreme Court Rulings on Election Cases
(1901-2001)
 Catalogue of Books of the Supreme Court Library and Lower
Court Libraries
 Index to Philippine Legal Periodical
Author/Title and Subject Index of all Philippine law journals,
reviews, and bulletins found in the Supreme Court Library
F. MEMORABILIA
Devoted to retired Justices of the Supreme Court with their picture, a
brief biography, decisions, available articles, and speeches of each
retired Justice of the Supreme Court.