Digitization

Library staff scanning a Chinese rare book using a high-end book scanner.

Stanford Libraries' digitization services

Digital access to collections held by Stanford Libraries is an essential part of teaching, research, and learning. We manage a robust service that digitizes a variety of library materials, including print, audio, video, and born-digital formats. 

Patrons can utilize our digitization services to gain digital access to the Libraries' collections. Library staff will facilitate your request with attention and efficiency and will communicate further details once the request is initiated.

How to make a digitization request 

To learn how to request digitization, please refer to information provided by these library units:

 

Otherwise, if you have identified library material in Searchworks for digitization, contact our reference librarians for assistance. 

Who can make a digitization request 

Stanford affiliates (students, faculty, and library staff), coordinate libraries, and patrons external to the university may request digitization services for research, teaching, and various academic pursuits.

What to expect

Our patrons can expect to receive high-quality files of the material they request in two to three weeks from the date of the request. Some charges may be incurred depending on the volume, affiliation, and material type. Requesters will be given a cost estimate for services before work proceeds and may decline services without penalty. See our pricing sheet.

Explore our digitization services

For examples of our work, visit the Digitization Exemplars online exhibit. To learn more about our labs, services, and workflows, visit the Stanford Libraries Digitization Services website.

Questions about digitization services? 

Please email digitization staff with any questions regarding our services. 

Learn more about each of our labs

Born Digital Preservation Lab

The Born Digital Preservation Lab (BDPL) creates disk images and preserves data from Stanford Libraries’ collections for faculty, staff, and curatorial needs.  Our labs are staffed with digital archivists and lab assistants capable of recovering data from a wide variety of digital carriers including whole computing systems, CDs and DVDs, thumb drives, SD Cards, Zip disks and floppy disks.

Digital Production Group

The Digital Production Group (DPG) produces high quality digital images of items in Stanford Libraries' collections for faculty, staff, and curatorial needs. We manage and operate four digitization labs staffed by highly skilled professional imaging specialists and student assistants. Our labs are capable of converting a wide variety of traditional library materials to digital formats, including printed books, journals, fine art, photographic prints and negatives, maps, manuscripts, and more.

Stanford Media Preservation Lab

The Stanford Media Preservation Lab is dedicated to preserving and enhancing access to original sound and moving image materials that are held by Stanford Libraries. Working closely with curators, archivists, conservators, and library staff, our core operations focus on creating a high-quality copy of the original content in a digital format that is easily accessed by researchers and the Stanford Libraries community.