The Digitization Program Office's Policy and Analysis Program collects metrics which track digitization progress, needs and opportunities across the Smithsonian, and supports the implementation of policy for the creation, management and stewardship of millions of Smithsonian digital assets. The Smithsonian’s strategic plan, as well as policies that govern digitization activities and digital access and use, provide the framework for the activities of the DPO.
We work closely with Smithsonian museum, archive, library, and research staff to support the development of digital asset management and digitization strategic plans that document priorities for digitizing the collections, delineate staff roles and responsibilities, describe challenges, and highlight innovations to ensure thoughtful care of digital assets, and define long-term management to enable preservation of and world-wide access to those assets well into the future.
We are guided in these efforts by the contributions of an internal advisory committee and working groups, as needed, that together tackle the various aspects of digitizing one of the largest and most varied collections in the world.
Externally, DPO monitors digitization and access policies of the U.S. federal government as well as those of global peer institutions and works within the Smithsonian to help promote awareness of these policies and practices.
