ToolKit - Overview

Purpose

This document is designed to document the philosophy and decisions that have been made regarding image capture procedures for archival images. It is important to maintain a high level of image quality across projects and over time. By documenting our decisions we hope to decrease the likelihood of rescanning fragile archival materials. It is also important to choose digital object formats that are likely to stand the test of time for long term preservation of the Purdue Libraries archival resources.

Scope

Scanning and file format recommendations for:

Photographs, maps, graphic and text materials
Document hardware description
Document software description
Quality control, file naming, scanner and monitor calibration, targets and color bars, storing images, and recording and verification of CD-ROMs

General Principles

Scan at the highest resolution for the type of original material
Scan at the highest quality the first time to prevent re-handling of delicate materials.
Create an archival copy of the images on high quality CD-ROM media.
Provide online access copies using NAS storage.
Create access copies stored on stable CD-ROM media.
Create meaningful metadata for image files or collections.
Monitor technology shift and copy to media as needed.
Document a migration strategy for maintaining access to all of our digital resources.
Scan original or first generation item wherever possible.
Minimize on-going costs in favor of one-time expenditures.

Works Cited

Kenney, Anne R. and Rieger, Oya Y. Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives, Mountain View, California, Research Libraries Group, 2000

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files – Raster Images, http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/techguide-raster-june2004.pdf

Inside the CDL, Digital Library Building Blocks, http://www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/

Digitization Guidelines for Creating Digital Still Images, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, http://www.natlib.govt.nz/files/nldraftdign.pdf

Guides to Quality in Visual Resource Imaging http://www.rlg.org/visguides/.

Technical Advisory Service for Images, http://www.tasi.ac.uk