Wider Lens: A Digital Transitions Podcast
A discussion with cultural heritage leaders on the current and future state of digitization
Wider Lens is a live podcast that brings the cultural heritage community together for conversations with practitioners shaping our field.
Each episode features a one-on-one discussion between Patrick McDonough, Head of Marketing at Digital Transitions, and a guest deeply involved in cultural heritage digitization—spanning museums, libraries, archives, and related institutions worldwide.
These conversations go beyond surface-level overviews to explore:
•Real-world digitization projects and workflows
•Preservation imaging standards, QA, and technical decision-making
•Lessons learned from complex or large-scale programs
•The human side of digitization: collaboration, institutional constraints, and career-long perspectives
•Where digitization, imaging standards, and access are heading next—and how we can improve them
Each session is recorded live, allowing attendees to:
•Watch the full conversation in real time
•Submit questions directly to the guest during a live Q&A
•Engage with peers across the global cultural heritage community
Following the live event, each session is released as a podcast episode so the conversation can continue beyond the webinar—on your own time, at work, or wherever you listen.
This series is designed for professionals working in digitization, imaging, conservation, collections, and program management who value both technical rigor and open dialogue.
Wider Lens: A Digital Transitions Podcast
EPISODE 1: Cliff Harrison, Purdue University Libraries & School of Information Studies
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Episode 1: Cliff Harrison, Purdue University Library
What does it really take to digitize the world’s cultural heritage — at scale, at speed, and at preservation grade?
For the inaugural episode of Wider Lens, we’re honored to welcome Cliff Harrison, Senior Manager of Digital Programs at the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, for a wide-ranging conversation about advancing cultural heritage digitization within an academic research library.
In this episode, we unpack:
- Why “instant capture” fundamentally changed the economics of digitization
- The hidden costs of legacy scanning workflows
- What FADGI 4-Star and ISO compliance actually mean in practice
- The concept of the Preservation Digital Object (PDO) — and why it matters
- How digitization protects collections from catastrophe, conflict, and time
- Why image quality today determines research value decades from now
- The balance between conservation handling and high-throughput production
- How modern RAW workflows future-proof cultural heritage collections
We also discuss real-world case studies — including institutions managing millions of items — and how advances in sensors, lighting, optics, and workflow automation are redefining what’s possible.
Whether you’re a digitization manager, curator, conservator, imaging specialist, or institutional leader, this episode provides a framework for thinking strategically about preservation-grade digitization in a world where demand for access has never been higher.
🎧 Listen now to explore how modern digitization is moving from “good enough” imaging to true digital surrogacy — and what that shift means for the future of cultural heritage.
And as always, we welcome feedback, comments and questions. Let us know what you'd like to hear on this podcast, or if you'd like to be a guest. Email us at: widerlens@digitaltransitions.com
Additional Notes from this episode:
- Cliff Harrison's Contact Information: https://lib.purdue.edu/people/cliff/
- The Neil Armstrong joke from his speech Cliff mentions: https://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/digital/collection/msa5/id/3128/rec/2
- DT's Online Digitization Certification Courses: https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/dt-digitization-certification-program/
- DT Instant Capture Digitization Systems: https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/product-catalog/
- DT's "Digitization Program Planning Guide" Bundle: https://heritage-digitaltransitions.com/product/cultural-heritage-digitization-planning-bundle-solutions-guide-digitization-program-planning-guide-pdf/