Initiatives Principle 1: A good collection-building initiative has a substantial design and planning component.

Planning is crucial to the completion and success of any program or project. It encompasses all aspects of the initiative, from processing workflow to the ultimate look and feel of the collection interface. Early on, planners should specify the targeted audience for the digital collection and perform a needs assessment to ascertain the functional requirements of these users. After that, a written project plan can be prepared that covers all significant aspects of the project: short and long-term goals and objectives, project constraints (e.g., time, resources, or political factors), selection, digitization, copyright issues, metadata and access, maintenance, dissemination, and evaluation.

Resources on needs assessment:

• Institute of Museum and Library Services, NLG [National Leadership Grants] Project Planning: A Tutorial website http://www.imls.gov/project_planning/. Includes sections on organizational needs and on needs analysis of target audiences. 
• Collaborative Digitization Program, Market Segments and Their Information Needs (1999) http://www.bcr.org/cdp/best/reports/rsrcusers.html.

General guides to planning for digital collections initiatives:

• JISC, Funding Opportunities: Project Planning website http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/proj_manguide/projectplanning.aspx. A very thorough set of guides focused on preparing applications for JISC funding but generalizable to other projects; includes links to a Word project plan template. 
• Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI), Generic Image Workflow: TASI Recommended Best Practice for Digitisation Projects (2004) http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/managing/workflow_generic.html. 
• Northeast Document Conservation Center, Handbook for Digital Projects, III: Considerations for Project Management (2000) http://nedcc.org/oldnedccsite/digital/iii.htm. Focuses on pre-project planning, despite the title. 
• Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI), Risk Assessment (2006) http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/managing/risk.html. 
• Linda Serenson Colet, RLG/DLF Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging: 1. Planning an Imaging Project (2000) http://web.archive.org/web/20060707235539/www.rlg.org/legacy/visguides/visguide1.html.