LibGuides: Digital Collections and Archives: Digitization

Digitization Resources

Best Practices and Planning for Digitization Projects
The long term viability of digital collections will be ensured only by considering, from the beginning, the ramifications of the initial decisions you make throughout the process. A well-developed project plan, that takes into consideration all the factors and problems of your digitization project, will be the most important document you create.
A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections
This Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections has three purposes: 1.To provide an overview of some of the major components and activities involved in creating good digital collections. 2.To identify existing resources that support the development of sound local practices for creating and managing good digital collections. 3.To encourage community participation in the ongoing development of best practices for digital collection building.
FSU's modified FADGII Set of Guidelines
See an example of how one FL institution has used the open license to modify the guidelines to their local settings and environment.
Planning for Digitization
This is the first module in the Public Library Partnerships Project curriculum, given by Jennifer Birnel, Director of the Montana Memory Project. It covers: advantages of digitization for your institution; value of digitization partnerships; tips for project planning. The Public Library Partnerships Project curriculum is intended for cultural heritage professionals who are new to digitization. It was designed to provide useful conceptual and practical information about each stage of the process to a beginner audience.
Preservation Guidelines for Digitizing Library Materials
In keeping with the goals of preservation and access at the Library of Congress, original collection materials are digitized for a variety of reasons, including for online exhibitions and for the online catalog. The first step in the process of digitizing Library collection materials is to review the following considerations: What is the purpose of the digitizing project?; Who will be the users of the digital surrogates?; How will the digital surrogates be presented?; What will be the effect on the original collection item of making the digital surrogate?; How will the digital files be accessed and stored?
Digital Preservation Handbook
This Handbook aims to identify good practice in creating, managing and preserving digital materials and also to provide a range of practical tools to help with that process.

Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials
This document defines a minimum benchmark for digital reproductions of printed monographs and serials.
Digital Audio Best Practices
The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines and a set of best practices for cultural heritage institutions interested in converting analog audio recordings to digital formats. Recording audio directly into digital formats is also addressed.
Guidelines: Motion Picture Film Scanning Projects
Archivists in memory institutions generally see the digitization of motion picture film as an emergent discipline and a still-evolving set of practices. This emergent state results from three main factors. The first pertains to the materials to be digitized. The array of types of motion picture materials is too broad and varied to permit of easy generalization. The second factor pertains to possible output formats, with some archives turning to video while others turn to formats like SMPTE's Digital Moving-Picture Exchange (DPX). The third factor is that the state of technology and relevant standards are still very actively under development. It is worth saying that digitization itself is the subject of vigorous debate among film-preservation specialists: some practitioners insist that photochemical, film-to-film reproduction is the only acceptable method for preservation reformatting, while others press forward with digital technologies.
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images
The NARA Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access define approaches for creating digital surrogates for facilitating access and reproduction; they are not considered appropriate for preservation reformatting to create surrogates that will replace original records. The Technical Guidelines presented here are based on the procedures used by the Digital Imaging Lab of NARA’s Special Media Preservation Laboratory for digitizing archival records and the creation of production master image files, and are a revision of the 1998 “NARA Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access”, which describes the imaging approach used for NARA’s pilot Electronic Access Project.
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials
The Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Files represents shared best practices followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Still Image Working Group for digitization of cultural heritage materials. This group is involved in a cooperative effort to develop common digitization guidelines for still image materials (such as textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) found in cultural heritage institutions.
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
The Sustainability of Digital Formats Web site provides information about digital content formats.

DH+LIB
where the digital humanities and librarianship meet

This website grew out of stirrings on the ACRL Digital Humanities Discussion Group (DHDG) listserv and a desire to create a more public venue for discussion. It aims to provide a communal space where librarians, archivists, LIS graduate students, and information specialists of all stripes can contribute to a conversation about digital humanities and libraries.
Audio Cassette Digitization Equipment guide
https://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/
Audio Visual Digitization Hardware and Software
From University of Utah Library
IrfanView
Free graphic viewer with a variety of image and TIFF tag editing features.

Digitization in a Box

Introduction

FLVC unlocks the world of digital archiving for members with a comprehensive Digitization in a Box set, available for in-house use at member libraries! Each set includes everything a library needs to digitize collections safely and efficiently. This effort increases the capacity of FLVC libraries across the state to digitize their local history and resources. The program includes a circulating collection of scanning equipment to digitize photos, documents, and slides.

Digitization in a Box’s contents are designed to make archive creation more accessible and give member communities the resources they need to begin sharing their stories digitally. This program provides libraries with access to scanning resources without having to invest in costly equipment and was designed to increase the capacity of FLVC’s libraries to digitize, provide access to, and preserve their local history collections. Participants work toward a shared goal of creating, maintaining, and expanding a successful and thriving statewide system that provides access to Florida’s digital collections and archives.

FLVC's Digitization in a Box program enables sustainable digital accessibility, cultural heritage resource exchange, incorporation of materials from a spectrum of locations and viewpoints, and research support for individuals seeking information and resources related to Florida’s history and unique communities.

Program Purpose

The Digitization in a Box Project allows FLVC Member Libraries to borrow scanning equipment, a laptop, and software from FLVC to start a new digitization project. Staff from institutions who participate in this program will be provided virtual training from DS+OER staff on best practices of scanning, workflows, metadata, and promotion. The purpose of this new program is to encourage members to make available digital collections to support the educational, research, and informational needs of our community members. Collections will need to be made searchable through the Florida Open Academic Library (FOAL) and may be made available to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Members may elect to host content with FLVC through our FL Islandora 2.0 platform.

The Digitization in a Box Project allows institutions with limited resources an opportunity to highlight their unique collections. Equipment will be loaned for 6 months with virtual training and set-up; this program is available to FLVC member libraries, which includes all 40 public post-secondary colleges and universities. Many of which partner with local archives, historical societies, culture centers, and museums.

Digitization outcomes will provide members with increased access and preservations of their unique and special collections. Libraries, museums, and archives often have photographs, newspapers, local histories, maps, institutional records, and/or genealogical documents that could reach a wider audience if digitized and made available online. Digitizing collections is not only a great way to increase access to member’s materials it also engages patrons on a whole new level and helps communicate the library's value. This model of support builds on the success of several ongoing public library system-driven projects.

Contacts

Rebel Cummings-Sauls, rsauls@flvc.org

Elisabeth Ball, eball@flvc.org

Digitization in a Box aims to increase the capacity of FLVC Member libraries to digitize their local history/resources and make them available online through FOAL. FLVC will distribute digitization kits to our member libraries. Kits will include a basic flatbed scanner and other equipment for scanning two-dimensional photos and documents. When equipment is received, the DS+OER unit will provide virtual training on how to use the scanner, the software, and what metadata to include in platform uploads. In addition, the unit will provide a toolkit to support outreach activities that introduce the basic concepts of digitization, accessibility, and preserving digital content in order to help members communicate digital preservation and stewardship concepts and issues to their communities.

FLVC will provide support for:

Useful and accurate content
Rare and unique items
Materials that have a potential for enduring value
Materials that are beneficial to FL and/or the institution’s community members

Loans may be limited to materials that will be made publicly available online. Institutions must have the rights needed to provide unrestricted public access to the digitized materials.

Who Can Apply

Any FLVC Member library that would like to digitize a collection and needs the technology, training, and support!

Guidelines

1. Eligibility: The Digitization in a Box Project equipment is available free of charge to FLVC member libraries who have completed a proposal form and loan agreement. Acceptable projects will follow the goals of this project and the collection policy of the institution. Generally, content should include materials in the public domain, properly licensed, or ones the library may have written permission to digitize. The content of materials should be part of your institution, of interest to Floridians, and/or support the educational, research, and information needs of the people of the state.

2. Equipment usage: Equipment is available to institutions to digitize cultural heritage materials that will be made public through the Florida Open Academic Library and any other accessible forum the institution chooses.

3. Equipment reserve, pick up and return: Equipment will be reservable by completing an application/proposal form and working with DS+OER staff to have key staff attend virtual training on the equipment and best practices. The member organization and FLVC will work together to determine whether equipment is picked up and returned to FLVC or delivered to and from another FLVC member location.

4. Loan period: The standard loan period is 6 months. Longer loan durations may be approved upon request.

5. Training: Entities who use the Digitization in a Box Project equipment are required to have at least one staff member and ideally all staff who will be working with the equipment to attend a half-day virtual training session with DS+OER staff on equipment use and digitization best practices.

6. Signed statement: An authorized institution representative is required to sign a loan agreement acknowledging receipt of the equipment and the terms of the loan before the equipment is lent - including financial responsibility for damaged or lost equipment. Institutions will also sign to indicate they have the rights to put the scanned materials online. Equipment will be initially checked by FLVC staff to confirm its good condition before a loan is made. Borrowing institutions are fiscally liable for any damage or missing cables or components.

7. Return: Borrowing institutions are responsible for any items not returned or requiring repair or replacement. FLVC will inspect all equipment upon return receipt.

Proposal Requirements

The project proposal should include descriptions of the following elements:

Materials: (description of materials, including type of material, content, number of items)
Significance: (what is the significance of these materials to your library, community, state)
Staff and Workflow: (description of who will be involved in the project; including scanning and metadata, partnerships, timeline of project, and promotion opportunities)

The proposal is to be submitted within the application form, available on this page: Digitization in a Box Proposal Form

FLVC will be providing 6 toolkits for use anywhere around the state. There are three different types of kit. Below find the contents of each kind of kit.

DIAB 1

Professional Scanner Studio Box
ET Series Professional Book Scanner
Laptop (Dell Latitude 5550)
Software (pre-loaded) CZUR Scanning Software

DIAB 2

Epson 13000XL Archival Scanner
Laptop (Dell Latitude 5550)
Software (Pre-loaded) Silverfast 9 Scanning Software

DIAB 2

Epson Perfection V850 Pro Photo Scanner
Laptop (Dell Latitude 5550)
Software (pre-loaded) Silverfast 9 Scanning Software

FLVC Library Services Member Guidance

Things to think about when starting digitization or digital preservation services:

1. Staffing

Dedicated, permanent staff can be a critical first piece of a new program. Temporary or student staffing should be used to support and not manage this type of service. If you must rely on temporary staffing it is crucial to document the workflow and decisions, including where digital files are stored, which type of file you created (i.e. master, access, edited), content rights, use permissions, and all contracts/paperwork.

Can we use existing facilities/staff, or do we need to hire?

2. Equipment

Equipment is an obvious and important part of digitization. Please reach out to members to discuss their experience with equipment before making a new purchase.

What are the minimum quality standards for finished digital items (e.g. do they need to be FADGI-compliant or will a lower set of internal standards do)?
Is vended scanning a plausible component of the project? (could be all or partial depending on legal status, condition, and rarity)
Do you need to arrange for new space and equipment?

3. Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)

A digital asset management system (DAMS) will provide discovery and access to your digital collections and archives. Public post secondary institutions in Florida may set up one FL-Islandora site per institution, contact help@flvc.org for assistance.

4. Strategy

A good first step is to set strategic direction for your services by answering these questions:

Who are the stakeholders?
What are the scope, scale, and expectations?
What is the level and duration of funding?

Look around at what others are doing. Digital projects and programs that impress you are a great resource for strategic planning. Contact them to talk and found out: What did they do? What do they recommend? What didn’t work for them?

It's okay to build digital collections project by project. You do not have to have a full program planned out to begin. Start with what's important, has funding, and/or is in a deteriorating state. You can find webinars on digital project selection and planning here from FSU: https://swfln.org/recorded-webinars/