Cultural heritage is defined as the common wealth of mankind, and because of the value cultural heritage has for culture and civilization, measures for its recording, retention and protection are being designed. Cultural heritage is divided into material and intangible heritage, where the material cultural heritage is further divided into movable and immovable property. Old and rare materials are counted as a movable cultural property. One of the most common forms of protection and enabling access to old and rare materials in today's time is digitization, which is being implemented over sensitive and valuable material through planning. Along with planning, creation of criteria for choosing material for digitization, as well as special measures of protection and availability are being used. Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia defines digitization as a process of protecting cultural heritage and enabling the increase of availability in accessing valuable material on the national and international level. Material that should first and foremost be digitalized and preserved is the old material, in other words old manuscripts and incunabula. According to Tinka Katić, the main criteria for choosing old material for digitalization is its value. Nevertheless the most endangered specimens also have priority. In the first part of this final paper, the concept of old and rare materials will be defined, as well as reasons for digitalizing that kind of material. Because there is more old and rare materials than we are able to digitalize in a short amount of time, it is extremely important to compose such criteria for digitization which will clearly state the way of choosing priorities for digitization on both national and local level. In other words, on the level of individual institutions and collections. These criteria often includes more elements, from those which are directed toward the value of material, to those which are directed toward its protection and the needs of scientists. In this final paper, Croatian and international criteria for choosing material for digitization will be explored in order to establish their compatibility and differences.