The libraries from which images were ordered received a copy of OCVE’s digitisation specifications. Not all were able to supply material at the defined standards, however, while others agreed to supply images to OCVE at a lower resolution (e.g. 300 ppi) than the one requested by the project team. For this reason, users will notice some variability in the quality of first-edition images within the OCVE resource. Although every effort was made to ensure consistency across this large virtual collection, such variability is inevitable given that the c. 6,000 images in OCVE were obtained from over thirty different suppliers.

Most participating institutions employed in-house digitisation staff, but in some cases the scanning or digital photography was outsourced. For example, PL-Wn digitised the Chopin editions held by PL-Wbfc and Pl-Wmfc (formerly in the collection of the Towarzystwo imienia Fryderyka Chopina). (See the abbreviations listed under Library sigla.) Lynda Sayce (employed on DIAMM) photographed the scores held by US-Wc, while Declan Corrigan digitised material at IRL-Dtc.

Despite repeated approaches, OCVE received no response of any kind from the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna; for this reason a number of late reprints of the English editions do not appear within the online resource. Interested users may choose to approach the Gesellschaft directly themselves. Fortunately, the particular late reprints are not of critical significance to the understanding of how the works in question evolved over time; for full details see the Annotated Catalogue of Chopin’s First Editions. The Museo de Fryderyk Chopin y George Sand in Valldemossa also decided not to participate in the project; users wishing to consult images or photographs of the Chopin sources held by the Museo can individually approach the Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw, which is licensed to provide such material for the purposes of private research.

Users occasionally will find that the images of certain pages listed in the work index are unavailable. This is usually because the institution holding the score in question could not supply digital images thereof – for example, if these pages were missing from the original itself. OCVE regrets any inconvenience caused to users.