Image of the World

 

HURST ASSOCIATES, LTD.

Resources for Learning More About Creating and Managing Digital Images 

Home

About Jill Hurst-Wahl

Digitization Services

Competitive Intelligence Services

Social Networking Services
(eNetworking 101)

Blog: Digitization 101

Site Map

Contact Us

 

For updates and news on digitization, visit our web log (blog) -  Digitization 101 - at http://www.Digitization101.com. 

Please note that the information below as not been updated since autumn 2004.  However, many of the sources are still worth consulting.

Also note that links below will not open automatically in a new window.

If you are interested in digitization and would like to read more about it, here are some excellent resources with which to begin. The resources on this page have been organized into categories that represent some of the major decision points that need to be considered in a digitization project. Keep in mind, though, that there’s a great deal of overlap and interdependence between and among these topics.

General Information
These resources contain general information about digitization and information that doesn’t fit one of the categories below.

Guidelines & Best Practices
A best practice is a process or procedure that has been proven to provide good results and can be used as a guideline in a similar situation. Resources here cover a broad range – from individual projects to collaborative efforts to general recommendations for any digitization project.

  • Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), University of Glasgow, & the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH). (2002, October). NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials. 1st ed. Version 1.0. http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/index.html
    A set of principles and guidelines for good practice in the digital representation and management of cultural heritage, based on a review and evaluation of current best practice.
  • Washington State Library. Digital Best Practices. http://digitalwa.statelib.wa.gov/newsite/best.htm
    A guide to the decision points in project management, collection, technology, and funding. Also includes a detailed step-by-step scenario and sample digital projects.        
  • Sitts, Maxine K. (ed.). (2000). Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access, 1st ed. Andover, MA: Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dighome.htm 
    A primer on managing digital conversion projects for libraries, museums, archives, and other collection-holding institutions. (This book is now out of print, but electronic copies can be downloaded from the NEDCC web site.) 
  • Colorado Digitization Program. Digitization Resources. http://www.cdpheritage.org/resource/
    Resources for all aspects of a digitization project.
  • Kentuckiana Digital Library. (n.d.). Digital Library Production Guide. http://www.kyvl.org/kentuckiana/bpguide/about.shtml
    Procedures for use in creating digital library content for the Kentuckiana Digital Library; sections on planning, scanning and imaging, metadata, text encoding, tools and links.
  • National Information Standards Organization (NISO). (2004, February 1). Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. http://www.niso.org/framework/forumframework.html
    Originally prepared by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in 2001, the framework helps users to identify, organize, and apply existing knowledge and resources that can aid in the development of local guidelines and procedures. It is built around indicators of goodness for collections, objects, metadata, and projects.
  • Hodge, Gail M. (2000, January). Best Practices for Digital Archiving: An Information Life Cycle Approach. D-Lib Magazine 6(1). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january00/01hodge.html    
  • Smith, Abby. (2001, September). Strategies for Building Digital Collections. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub101/contents.html
    A review of existing practices in libraries involved with digitization projects and a discussion of long-term implications of the opportunities and constraints of digitization.        
  • Ostrow, Stephen E. (1998, February). Digitizing Historical Pictorial Collections for the Internet. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/ostrow/pub71.html
    Analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of digital access to images; also addresses preservation, bibliographic control, a detailed checklist for planning, and information about copyright.        
  • Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. (2000, March). Digital Projects Guidelines. Version 1.3. http://www.dlapr.lib.az.us/digital/index.html
    Guidelines to assist in planning and completing digitization projects; targeted at those considering their first project or still novices in scanning and digitization.
  • Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. (2000, March). Digital Projects Guidelines. Version 1.3. http://www.dlapr.lib.az.us/digital/index.html
    Guidelines to assist in planning and completing digitization projects; targeted at those considering their first project or still novices in scanning and digitization.
  • California Digital Library. (2003, December 22). Inside CDL: Digital Library Building Blocks. http://www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/
  • RLG. (2004). Guides and Tools. http://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=555
    A list of guides and tools produced in RLG projects.

Assessment & Planning
A well thought out and developed plan is critical to the success of any digitization project. Before beginning a project, it is necessary first to assess the current environment and then to plan the digitization process. The following resources provide many specific examples.

Digitization Costs
Costs ensue in all aspects of a digitization project, from planning to the actual digitization to metadata to maintenance. These resources address the budgeting and cost issues of digitization.

Selection
It’s usually not possible to digitize everything. These resources cover some of the issues concerned with selecting items for digitization. Included also are some decision-making matrices.

  • Ayris, Paul. (1999, February 19). Guidance for selecting materials for digitisation. http://www.rlg.org/preserv/joint/ayris.html
    Paper presented at the joint RLG and NPO Preservation Conference on Guidelines for Digital Imaging. Includes an assessment and links to other sources on the topic as well as a decision-making matrix to support selection activities.
  • Thompson, Kim. (1998, October 8). University of California Selection Criteria for Digitization. http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ucpag/digselec.html
    Criteria for both the collection to be digitized and for the digital version.
  • Harvard University Library. (1997, May 12). Selection for Digitizing: a Decision-Making Matrix. http://preserve.harvard.edu/bibliographies/matrix.pdf 

  • Hazen, Dan, Jeffrey Horrell & Jan Merrill-Oldham. (1998, August). Selecting Research Collections for Digitization. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/hazen/pub74.html
    A series of questions to facilitate decision making. The focus in on the nature of the collections and their use and on institutional context.

Copyright & Intellectual Property
Copyright and intellectual property rights impact not only the decision to digitize material, but also the rights extended to users. The following resources include basic copyright information as well as bibliographies and public domain charts.

Deed of Gift
 Many institutions need to refer to the deed of gift completed when an item was donated in order to determine if the institution has the right to digitize the item. The following resources provide examples of deed of gift forms and other useful information.

Digital Imaging
 What equipment and techniques are most appropriate for digitizing? These resources cover some of the basics that apply to all digitization projects, as well as some of the issues that need to be decided for an individual project.

  • Moving Theory Into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial. (2003, February 20). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library/Research Department. http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html
    Base-level information on the use of digital imaging to convert and make accessible cultural heritage materials.

  • California Digital Library. (2003, November 1). Inside CDL: General Scanning and Digitization Resources. http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/oac/dig/onres_
    dig_digitization.html
    Bibliography covers general resources, best practices, file standards, hardware/software recommendations, and outsourcing.

  • Canadian Council of Archives. (2002, October). Digitization and Archives. http://www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/digitization_en.pdf
    Includes principles concerning the relationship of digitization to preservation of archival records and a detailed decision tree.

  • Digital Library of Georgia. (2001, July). Digital Library of Georgia Digitization Guide. Version 1.0 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/guide.html
    Provides an overview of the digitization process for historical documents such as manuscripts, photographs, books, printed materials, and other flat paper items.

  • Frey, Franziska S. & James M. Reilly. (1996, May). Recommendations for the Evaluation of Digital Images Produced from Photographic, Microphotographic, and Various Paper Formats. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/Ipireprt.pdf

  • Reilly, James M. & Franziska S. Frey. (1999). Digital Imaging for Photographic Collections: Foundations for Technical Standards. http://www.rit.edu/~661www1/sub_pages/digibook.pdf
    Detailed report provides guidance to libraries, museums, and archives in the conversion of photographic collections to digital form, with a focus on the issues surrounding image quality.

  • Chapman, Stephen. (1999, February 26). Guidelines for Image Capture. http://www.rlg.org/preserv/joint/chapman.html
    Paper presented at the joint RLG and NPO Preservation Conference on Guidelines for Digital Imaging.

  • D'Amato, Donald P. & Rex C. Klopfenstein. (1996, March). Requirements and Options for the Digitization of the Illustration Collections of the National Museum of Natural History. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/cris/techrpts/imagopts/index.html
    This report from the Smithsonian Institution details the results of a study undertaken to understand the requirements and alternatives for digitization of scientific illustrations.

  • Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE. (2000, March 28). Digitizing Images and Text. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Imaging/
    Bibliography covers articles and papers, companies, sample projects, and other resources and tools.

  • Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging. (2000, July). http://www.rlg.org/visguides/
    Produced under the auspices of the Digital Library Federation, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and the Research Libraries Group, these five guides “address the steps to successfully create and store high-quality digital masters and derivatives. They include project planning, scanner selection, imaging system set-up, and the resulting digital masters.”

Digitizing Audio
Audio is digitized and presented differently than images and text. Resources here include specific projects plus general best practice guidelines.

Metadata & Standards
The resources in this section cover the full spectrum of metadata and standards –  from an introduction to the basic concepts to links to some of the most-used standards.

  • Baca, Murtha. (Ed.). Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information. Version 2.0. http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata
    Three articles cover an overview of metadata, the issues of metadata and standards on the Web, and the need and problems in mapping metadata standards to increase interoperability. Includes a collection of metadata standards crosswalks.

  • International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). (2003, February 3). Digital Libraries: Metadata Resources. http://www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm
    An extensive listing of metadata resources.

  • Encoded Archival Description (EAD). Version 2002. http://www.loc.gov/ead/
    An SGML standard for encoding finding aids to collections of material. Maintained by the Library of Congress.
  • Dublin Core. http://dublincore.org/
    The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is a core set of 15 elements that can be shared across disciplines or within organizations to organize and classify information. Maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.

  • MARC Standards. http://www.loc.gov/marc/
    MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) formats are standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine readable form. Maintained by the Library of Congress.
  • MIT Libraries. (2004, February 6). Metadata Reference Guide. http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/metadata/index.html
    Includes overview, selected standards, crosswalks, glossaries, sample projects at MIT, and additional resources.

  • There are many more guidelines available for metadata.  To locate them, use a search engine such as Google.com and search for: metadata standards

Digitization Projects
Often it is useful to view the output from other digitization projects.  Each of the examples below is interesting for different reasons.  Some were demonstration projects, some were maverick projects, some were learning experiences, some are excellent examples of what a digitization project can be.

 

Hurst Associates, Ltd. is a NYS certified Minority & Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE).
Updated: Oct. 15, 2007 (format only), Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Hurst Associates, Ltd., All rights reserved.