Ceramics Digitization Procedures Guideline

Apart from the ancient ceramics collected in museums, kiln sites from all over Taiwan are continuously creating ceramics with local features. While there is a need for ancient ceramic to be preserved via digital archives, the need is greater for ceramics with local features to be digitized to enable the world to comprehend the subtleties of the traditional techniques as well as the rich creativity of Taiwanese people. The purpose of this guideline is to integrate prior digitization experiences of domestic institutions; generalize reference guidelines for digitization work; and provide a set of standards for other institutions with ceramic collections when they join the ranks of digital archives, and help these places truly understand the meaning of digital archive work. 

The material of ceramic itself easily reflects light and is harder to photograph than other objects. This is why the guideline investigates how to take a picture that perfectly shows the object's shape and at the same time clearly displays its decoration patterns. If digitization work ends at the creation of digital image files, then it brings little meaning to artifact preservation and knowledge dissemination. The establishment of metadata and development of a database system are also required to properly preserve and utilize archive resources as well as truly implement the meaning of digital archives.

Although the guideline focuses on digitizing ceramics, the application can be employed on other objects as long as they are small-scale and three-dimensional. Additionally, most of the concepts in the guideline can be used as references in other digitization projects.