Digitization projects fail when they start with a scanner instead of a plan. A successful project begins with the end in mind: what you’re trying to achieve, to what standard, with what metadata, and what happens to the paper afterward.
1. Define the goal
Why digitize? Better access, reduced storage, disaster resilience, or bringing legacy paper into your electronic records environment? The goal drives every later decision. “Scan everything” is not a goal.
2. Select and appraise what to digitize
Not everything is worth digitizing. Appraise the records: high-value, frequently-accessed, or at-risk records are good candidates; records near the end of their retention may not be worth the cost. Digitizing low-value paper is a common waste.
3. Set quality and format standards
Decide resolution, color, and file formats up front, against a recognized standard like FADGI. For permanent records, meet NARA’s digitization standards.
4. Plan metadata and indexing
An image with no metadata is hard to find and manage. Decide what descriptive and management metadata you’ll capture, and whether you’ll add OCR for full-text search.
5. Build in quality control
Define QC steps — completeness (every page captured), legibility, correct orientation, and metadata accuracy — and who checks them. QC is what makes the digital copy trustworthy.
6. Decide the fate of the source records
The payoff (reclaiming space) usually depends on disposing of the paper afterward — which is only allowed when the digitization meets standards and the disposal is authorized. Plan this before you scan, or you’ll end up keeping both.
7. Choose in-house vs. vendor, and pilot
Decide whether to scan in-house or use a vendor, and run a pilot on a representative sample to validate quality, throughput, and cost before committing at scale.
The takeaway
Digitization is one of the highest-value moves in records management — but only with a plan covering goals, selection, standards, metadata, QC, and the source records. Plan before you scan, and you turn paper into trustworthy, findable, managed records. See the digitization and imaging hub for more.
Sources & further reading
Authoritative government and non-profit references.
- Digitizing Permanent Records — National Archives (NARA)
- Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) — FADGI (U.S. federal agencies)
How to cite this page
APA
RM University Editorial Team. (2026). Planning a Digitization Project. Records Management University. https://www.recordsmgmt.org/articles/planning-a-digitization-project/
MLA
RM University Editorial Team. "Planning a Digitization Project." Records Management University, 16 June 2026, www.recordsmgmt.org/articles/planning-a-digitization-project/.