Documenting the Digital Library
Section 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Digital reformatting
  • General
  • Images
  • Manuscripts
  • Project planning guidelines
  • Quality control
  • Selection criteria for digitization
  • Texts

Digital reformatting

Digital reformatting (general)

Building Digital Collections

Links to descriptions of technical methods and processes for specific collections arranged by original format, and Library of Congress division. Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/digcols.html

Building Digital Collections: Technical Information and Background Papers

Various reports outlining technical activities related to the American Memory Collections produced by the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) of the Library of Congress. Library of Congress. 2000. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftpfiles.html

Digital Library Program papers, reports, and technical documents

Links to digital library projects and programs at Indiana University including technical documentation and digitization procedures for differently formatted information objects (including music, lyrics, photographs, 3-D objects, etc.). Indiana University. http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/information/techdocs/

University of Minnesota Digital Collections Unit: Standards and Technical Documentation

Standards and technical documentation including archival scanning guidelines and Encoded Archival Description documentation. University of Minnesota. 2000. http://digital.lib.umn.edu/technical.html

Hybrid Approaches to Reformatting

Chapman, Stephen. Links to relevant information resources. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2000. http://preserve.harvard.edu/bibliographies/hybrid.html

Reformatting

Chapman, Stephen. For information about technologies, standards, vendors, and workflow design for converting existing materials to digital form. Harvard University. 1999. http://hul.harvard.edu/ldi/html/reformatting.html

Why Digitize?

Smith, Abby. Evaluates the experiences of cultural institutions with digitization projects to date and summarizes what has been learned about the advantages and disadvantages of digitizing culturally significant materials. CLIR. 1999. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub80.html

Digital reformatting (images)

California Digital Library Digital Image Collection Standards

This document addresses the standards for archival quality, digital image collections for the California Digital Library. These standards describe the image quality considerations, file formats, storage and access standards for digital images created by or incorporated into the CDL as part of the permanent collections. They attempt to balance adherence to industry standards, reproduction quality, access, potential longevity and cost. Adherence to these standards is required for all CDL contributors and may also serve University of California staff as guidelines for digital image creation and presentation. California Digital Library. 1999. http://www.ucop.edu/irc/cdl/tasw/Current/Imaging.Stds-090199/Imaging.Stds-090199.pdf

Library Digital Initiative Reformatting: Image Scanning Guidelines

Developed in 1998 by a Technical Working Group established as part of Harvard's Visual Information Access project (VIA) - a union catalog of visual resources at Harvard and Harvard University Library. 1999. http://hul.harvard.edu/ldi/image_scanning.PDF

Technical Recommendations for Digital Imaging Projects

This document provides recommendations for image quality, file formats, and other capture and storage issues when converting paper, photographic and other physical materials into digital form. Additional documents on the selection of materials for digitization, on how to describe and index the materials being digitized, and on digital library access mechanisms will be added in the future. Columbia University. 1997. http://www.columbia.edu/acis/dl/imagespec.html

Digital Image Collections

Ester, Michael. Projects to digitize visual collections present their own unique set of questions and concerns, as well as issues that overlap with digital capture of text. The author provides library and archives administrators with ways of thinking about this activity for the long-term benefit of preservation and scholarship. CLIR. 1996. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub67.html

Using Kodak Photo CD Technology for Preservation and Access: A Guide for Librarians, Archivists, and Curators

Kenney, Anne R. and Oya Y. Rieger. Brochure summarizing the findings of a study coordinated by Cornell University Library's Department of Preservation and Conservation that evaluated Kodak Photo CD technology as a tool for preserving and making available electronically a broad range of research Cornell University Library. 1998. http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/kodak/kodak-htm.htm

Illustrated Book Study: Digital Conversion Requirement of Printed Illustrations

Kenney, Anne R. and Louis H. Sharpe II with Barbara Berger, Rick Crowhurst, D. Michael Ott, and Allen Quirk. Report prepared for the Library of Congress by The Cornell University Library Department of Preservation and Conservation and Picture Elements, Incorporated, to determine the best means for digitizing the vast array of illustrations used in 19th and early 20th century commercial publications. Library of Congress. 2000. http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/it/illbk/ibs.htm

Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives

Kenney, Anne R. and Stephen Chapman. Cornell University Library. 1996. http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/dila.htm

Conservation Implications of Digitization Projects

National Digital Library Program and the Conservation Division of the Library of A discussion of roles of conservation consultation, training and treatment for scanning in NDLP ditial image conversion projects. Written by conservators who have worked with NDLP projects since the beginning of the program in 1995.. Library of Congress. 1999. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/conservation.html

Digital reformatting (manuscript documents)

Library of Congress Manuscript Digitization Demonstration Project Final Report

Extensive report on a project on a project designed to assess methods for creating, managing, preserving and supporting online access to digital surrogates for manuscripts items. Based on work with some 10,000 manuscript items, the report is wide ranging and bears on a range of issues from image quality to production methods and preservation issues. Also includes a survey of existing practice. Library of Congress. 1998. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pictel/index.html

Digitization for Scholarly Use: The Boswell Papers Project at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Bouché, Nicole. This paper reports on the digitization of manuscripts from the Boswell Collection by The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. It is one of a series that CLIR is publishing in order to explore strategies for integrating digital technology into the management of library print and media collections. CLIR. 1999. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub81.html

Digital reformatting (project planning guidelines)

NDLP Project Planning Checklist

A list of tasks for digitizing a collection used as an aid to conversion project planning. Library of Congress. 1997. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/prjplan.html

Steps in the Digitization Process

A one page summary of the general digitization workflow. Library of Congress. 1996. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award/docs/stepsdig.html

Moving Theory into Practice

Kenney, Anne R. and Oya Y. Rieger. This new publication from RLG is a self help reference for libraries and archives that choose to reformat cultural resources to digital image form. Research Libraries Group. 2000. http://www.rlg.org/preserv/mtip2000.html

Digital reformatting (quality control)

Conversion Specifications for Contracted Scanning Services

NDLP Requests for Proposals for scanning and text conversion of original paper documents, microfilm, and pictorial materials. (3 documents). Library of Congress. 1996. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/conversion.html

Document Imaging Quality Review Training Guide

Instructions for reviewing scanned images received from contractors. Library of Congress. 1999. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/qintro.htm

Text Quality Review Guidelines

Instructions for reviewing scanned images received from contractors. Library of Congress. 1997. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/txtqr.html

Measuring the Accuracy of the OCR

Bicknese, Douglas A.. Examines the text files created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software used in the University of Michigan's Making of America project. The goal of this project was to develop a method for distinguishing accurate OCR files from OCR files with an unacceptable number of errors, without having to examine each file. University of Michigan, School of Information. 1998. http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/moaocr.html

Digital Imaging, Measuring Image Quality

Chapman, Stephen. Links to relevant information resources. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2000. http://preserve.harvard.edu/bibliographies/digitalquality.html

The Electronic Access Project: NARA Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access

Puglia, Steven and Barry Roginski. These guidelines have been developed to provide a method of evaluating the quality of images produced, to estimate the data storage for access (on-line) files and master (off-line) files, and to assist in determining the need for upgrades to the NARA network infrastructure. They were developed for NARA's Electronic Access Project whose goals are to produce an on-line catalog that will provide information about NARA holdings and a core collection of digital National Archives and Records Administration. 1998. http://www.nara.gov/nara/vision/eap/digguide.pdf

Recommendations for the Evaluation of Digital Images Produced from Photographic, Microphotographic, and Various Paper Formats

Reilly, James M. and Franziska S. Frey. The report of the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) in Rochester, New York, recommends quality assurance procedures to be used to create measurable images, together with a description of the tools and/or devices needed to measure the outcome of the resulting images. Specifically, it supplies technical guidance regarding such concerns as how to perform tests after scanning to measure capture resolution (and tonality) by interpreting or reading test targets or by other means which may be suggested. Library of Congress. 1996. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ipireprt.pdf

Digital reformatting (selection criteria for digitization)

Criteria for Selection for Retrospective Digitization

Selection criteria developed by the University of Chicago Library's Digital Library Development Center - providing leadership in the creation, implementation, and assessment of digital library initiatives, and developing and maintaining a sustainable architecture to support the Library's Web-based information systems. Criteria fall into two categories: traditional collection development criteria involving the estimation of the intrinsic intellectual value of the material and whether value can be increased and enhanced through digitization; and criteria based on extrinsic factors of feasibility and practicality. University of Chicago. 2000. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/dldc/reports/selectioncriteria.html

Selection Criteria for Digital Imaging Projects

While they are not prescriptive, the criteria should be applied to the process of selecting materials for digital imaging before any new project is initiated. It is at this point expensive to select, create, and maintain digital resources, with the cost of image-capture accounting for less than half of the total expense. It is important to establish the degree of institutional support and funding that is likely when priorities are being determined. Columbia University. 1998. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/digital/criteria.htm

Selection Criteria for Retrospective Digitization

Criteria deployed at the University of Chicago. University of Chicago. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/dldc/reports/selectioncriteria.html

Selection for Digitization

Chapman, Stephen. Links to information information resources. President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2000. http://preserve.harvard.edu/bibliographies/selection.html

Selecting Research Collections for Digitization

Hazen, Dan and Jeffrey Horrell and Jan Merrill-Oldham. Provides detailed planning information for research libraries contemplating large-scale digital conversion of holdings for research and teaching purposes. CLIR. 1998. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub74.html

Digital reformatting (texts)

American Memory DTD for Historical Documents

Description of TEI conformant SGML encoding practices for historical texts. (3 documents) (June 1998). Library of Congress. 1998. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/techdocs/amdtd.html

TEI Text Encoding in Libraries. Draft Guidelines for Best Encoding Practices. Version

These guidelines grew out of a workshop convened to explore the use of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and XML in libraries. They make recommendations pertaining to the application of the TEI Guidelines and particularly "best practices" for the encoding of electronic texts developed for different purposes. The guidelines have been endorsed and are in use by leading text centers in the US and Europe. DLF. 1999. http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/tei/

SGML as a Framework for Digital Preservation and Access

Coleman, James and Don Willis. Explores the suitability of Standard Generalized Markup Language for developing and providing access to digital libraries, with special emphasis on preservation issues. CLIR. 1997. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub68.html

Full-Text Working Group

Payette, Sandy (Chair). Developed by Cornell University Library's Full-Text Working Group, the report provides a framework for understanding the issues and challenges of full-text in the digital library and Cornell University Library. 1996. http://www.mannlib.cornell.edu/ftrat/ftwg-rpt.pdf

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