the Internet Public Library

Pathfinder: Digitization

"The dream of the virtual library comes forward now not because it promises an exciting future, but because it promises a future that will be just like the past, only better and faster." --James J. O'Donnell, Avatars of the Word

General Information

This guide provides a number of resources to help make decisions about digitizing a collection. There are both print-based and Internet-based resources that provide information about scanning, preservation, copyright, metadata and file formats. This is a rapidly developing area of technology that continues to change every few years. A good understanding of general underlying principles will be the best way to ensure that your project doesn't become obsolete in just a few short years.

Many of the resources cited are from large institutions with well-funded projects. Although your project may be very small in scope, it is often best to learn the "best practices" from professionals who are working with hundreds of thousands of images and adapt them for your use.

Internet Resources

Glossary of Terms

• Glossary (http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org/glossary.html): A glossary of digitization terms from the Colorado Digitization Project.

Guidelines and Planning

• The Colorado Digitization Project (http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org/toolbox.html) offers one of the best starting points for thinking about a project. There are even some instances where it may be best not to digitize, and those considerations are available here.
• The Cornell University Library offers a Digital Imaging Tutorial (http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html) that provides greater technical detail about the process from selecting what to digitize to managing the final collection.
• "Building Digital Collections: Technical Information and Background Papers" (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftpfiles.html) from the Library of Congress American Memory Collection discusses the technology behind this digital collection of over 5 million items.
• Planning Digital Projects for Historical Collections (http://digital.nypl.org/brochure/) by the New York Public Library provides a broad set of guidelines for creating projects plus a description of how its digital collections are organized.

Preservation

• Caring for Your Collections (http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/careothr.html): A series of guides from the Library of Congress about the care, handling and storage of collections.
• Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.nara.gov/arch/faqs/index.html): Information from the National Archives and Records Administration about preserving a variety of collections.

Copyright

• Copyright and Fair Use (http://fairuse.stanford.edu/): An extensive guide to a variety of aspects of copyright.
• Copyright on the Internet (http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/cOpyNet.htm): An overview of how copyright law extends to the Internet from the Franklin Pierce Law Center.
• Copyright Information Circulars and Form Letters (http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/): Publications, forms, and explanations of how copyright applies to various media from the United States Copyright Office.
• When Works Pass into the Public Domain (http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/copyright/): A useful table showing the years certain works fall into the public domain from the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections.

Metadata

• Metadata (http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org/access.html): A list of resources on how to describe digital objects from the Colorado Digitization Project.
• Dublin Core Metada Element Set (http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/): A description of standard fields for describing electronic resources from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
• A Gentle Introduction to Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) (http://www-tei.uic.edu/orgs/tei/sgml/teip3sg/SG.htm): An international standard for the definition of device-independent, system-independent methods of representing texts in electronic form.
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD) (http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/): A standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

Scanning and Storage

• Selecting a Scanner (http://www.rlg.org/visguides/visguide2.html): An extensive discussion about how to choose a scanner appropriate for the type of project being undertaken.
• File Formats (http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/presentation/table7-1.html): A table comparing a variety of the most common image file format in use from Cornell University Library.
• Storage Media (http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/technical/table6-2.html): A table comparing costs and capacities of various storage media from Cornell University Library.

Magazines

• D-Lib Magazine (http://www.dlib.org/): A monthly online magazine about innovation and research in digital libraries by the Corporation for National Research Initatives.
• RLG DigiNews (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/): A bimonthly online magazine providing guidance and pointers to relevant projects to improve awareness of evolving practices in image conversion and digital archiving.

Other

• DigLib (http://www.ifla.org/II/lists/diglib.htm): A discussion list for librarians, information scientists, and other information professionals to share information about the many issues and technologies pertaining to the creation of "digital libraries."
• MrSID Geo (http://www.lizardtech.com/products/mrsidgeo/): Software to allow users pan and zoom large images on their Web browsers.
• MrSID Image Server (http://www.lizardtech.com/cgi-bin/products/desc.pl?tsb=25718): Allows users to receive on-the-fly smaller, lower resolution derivatives of high resolution originals.

• American Memory (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html): A collection of over 5 million items from the Library of Congress.
• Arts ConnectEd (http://www.artsconnected.org/): A variety of art-related images, sound recordings and videos from The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Arts Center.
• Greater Rochester (MI) History Online (http://history.rhpl.org/): A collection of 450 post cards and photos of the downtown of a Midwestern town over the past 100 years.
• Historic American Sheet Music (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/): Digital images of over 3,000 pieces of sheet music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920 by Duke University.
• History and Politics Out Loud (http://www.hpol.org/): A searchable archive of significant audio materials from Northwestern University.
• Kansas City Public Library Special Collections (http://www.kcpl.org/sc/default.htm): An extensive collection of photographs, maps, biographies, post cards, architecture and more.
• Making of America (http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/): A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction featuring 8,500 volumes and 50,000 journal articles from the collection of the University of Michigan.
• Valley of the Shadow (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vshadow2/ecai/index.html): A project offering search and retrieval on a geographic basis to show how things relate, change over time using a geographic information system.

Print Resources

Given this is such an evolving and highly technical subject area, there are relatively few books available. The following three titles have recently been published and offer good advice about the digitization process.

Books

• Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and Access (http://www.nedcc.org/dighand.htm). Northeast Document Conservation Center. Andover, MA : Northeast Document Conservation Center, c2000. ( ISBN: 0-9634685-4-5; $38). Serves as a resource and response to the questions, conflicts, and unique preservation challenges produced by ever-evolving technologies.
• Kenney, Anne R. and Oya Y. Rieger. Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives (http://www.rlg.org/preserv/mtip2000.html). Mountain View, CA : Research Libraries Group, c2000. (ISBN: 0-9700225-0-6; $80) Advocates an integrated approach to digital imaging programs, from selection to access to preservation, with a heavy emphasis on the intersection of institutional, cultural objectives and practical digital applications.
• Lee, Stuart. Digital Imaging: A Practical Handbook (http://www.neal-schuman.com/db/2/152.html). New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers in association with Library Association Pub., c2001. ( ISBN: 1-55570-405-0; $55) Offers a guided tour of the digitization process from selecting what to digitize right through the actual digitization process, incorporating project funding and management. It is designed to assist with projects of all sizes.
• Smith, Abby. Why Digitize? (http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80.html). Washington, D.C. : Council on Library and Information Resources, c1999. (ISBN: 1-8873346-5-3; $15). 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.

Additional resources can be found at public and university libraries under call numbers in the 025.17 of the Dewey Decimal Classification System and in the Z 681.3 section of the Library of Congress Classification System. Useful resources may also be found under the following Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Archival materials--Digitization
• Digital preservation
• Image processing--Digital techniques
• Library materials--Digitization

This pathfinder was created by Larry P. Neal.

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