This study examines the changing concepts of digitization and digital sustainability and how these changes are reflected in the documents and practices of Leipzig University. The basis for the research is the idea that digitization is not merely a technical process; rather, it functions as a socio-technical practice in which organizational decisions, infrastructural constraints, social access, and environmental costs intersect. As the volume of digital objects increases and data infrastructures expand, digitization is increasingly understood as a sustainability issue—one that encompasses energy consumption, data storage, infrastructure maintenance, equipment life cycles, and long-term institutional commitments.
The literature review is structured around four paradigms: from early technological optimism and digitization as progress, through initial critical approaches, to an infrastructural understanding, and finally to the post-2019 paradigm in which digitization is framed as a matter of climate policy and environmental impact.
The empirical section analyzes Leipzig University. In its strategic documents, sustainability and digitization often exist in parallel but do not converge into a coherent policy of digital sustainability, while the digitization of cultural heritage remains weakly articulated. In practice, the Digitization Department of the University Library relies on the technical requirements of external funding bodies, established standards, and a logic of long-term access. The study discusses the equipment in use, the division of labor, and sustainability aspects—social, technological, and digital.
The discussion concludes that a concise strategy for the digital sustainability of cultural heritage digitization at the university could fill the gaps not addressed by funding requirements alone, by more clearly defining priorities, responsibilities, long-term preservation policies, and ecological principles.