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FIU Digital Project Guidelines and Help Materials

The internal standard operating procedures for FIU Libraries' digital collections

Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI)

FADGI Guidelines: Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials

"The document below, revised by the Still Image Working Group in 2015 and approved in September 2016, is an update of the 2010 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files."

2016 Approved Version

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2016) (PDF, 2.78 MB)

ALCTS Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations

From the Florida Statewide Digital Action Plan: Guidelines for Building Good Digital Collections (2014) adopted from standards established by the American Library Association, Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS).

 

The ALCTS Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations states:

When digitizing objects one must be aware that different types of materials are used in different ways and that sometimes requires variations in the digitization specification. The Recommendations stated here should fulfill most needs, but may need to be adjusted to a higher specification in instances where the expected use is different than is described in this document.

 

Organizations should remember that digital objects are used in different ways and that this variety of uses needs to be considered in determining the level of digitization required.  While the minimum level might meet most needs, an adjustment to the higher specification might be necessary for specialized needs.

 

Text

When scanning text documents, spatial resolutions should be based on the size of text found in the document and resolutions should be adjusted accordingly.  Documents with smaller printed text may require higher resolutions and bit depths than documents that use large typefaces.  Projects planning on applying Optical Character Recognition (OCR) may wish to test pages at several resolutions to find the most satisfactory results.  Images that produce the best results for OCR may not be pleasing to the eye and may require separate scans for OCR and human display.

 

Projects with large amounts of textual materials, particularly hard-to-read materials such as manuscripts, should consider providing transcriptions of the materials in addition to the digital image.  Access to textual material can be further enhanced through SGML/XML markup schemes such as the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). As re-keying text can be cost prohibitive, projects considering transcriptions should investigate including Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software in their toolkit.

 

Text

Master

Access

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

1 bit bi-tonal

8 – 16 bit grayscale

48 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

adjust scan resolution to produce a minimum pixel measurement across the long dimension of 6,000 lines for 1 bit files and 4,000 lines for 8 – 16 bit files

150 – 200 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

4000 – 6000 pixels across the long dimension

600 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

Photographs

Photographs can present many scanning challenges. We recommend scanning from the negative (or the earliest generation of the photograph) to yield a higher-quality image. Another consideration is whether to scan sepia-tone photographs as color or black and white images. We recommend scanning them as color images to create a better image, although this will increase the file size. Another consideration with photographs is whether to scan the backs of photographs as separate image files if there is significant information on the back of the photo (which may be of interest to users) that may not be included elsewhere. If a scanned image of the verso of the photograph is available, the digital image may serve as a more successful surrogate for the original.

 

Photographs

Master

Access

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

16 bit grayscale

48 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

8 bit grayscale )

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

400 – 800 ppi

150 – 200 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

4000 – 8000 pixels across the long dimension, depending on size of original, excluding mounts and borders

600 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

Graphic Materials

Graphics include the various techniques used to reproduce words and images from originals such as engraving, lithography, line art, graphs, diagrams, illustrations, technical drawings, and other visual representations. Nearly all graphics will be two dimensional, and should be scanned using the following guidelines.

 

 

 

Graphic Materials

Master

Access

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

16 bit grayscale

48 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

600 – 800 ppi

150 – 200 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

6000 – 8000 pixels across the long dimension, excluding mounts and borders

600 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

Artwork / 3 Dimensional Objects

For projects where the physical dimensions of the non-3D artwork match the equipment available, the following standards can be used. If scanning photographic copies of objects and artifacts, see recommended requirements in the appropriate photo and film charts. .

 

Artwork

Master

Access

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

48 bit color

24 bit color

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

Device Maximum

300 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

100% of original

600 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

Maps

Scanning maps may involve items that vary widely in size, condition, and amount of detail.  Small maps may fit easily onto a flatbed scanner, but large plat maps may need to be scanned in sections, even on a large format scanner, or captured by a camera.  The size of the image can become a problem for storage, but also for viewing, serving over the Web, or processing.

 

Smaller maps (less than 36 inches on the longest dimension) should be digitized at 600 ppi, 48-bit color or 16-bit grayscale if possible.  For larger maps, 300-400 ppi may be more practical.  If it becomes necessary to digitize a map in sections and stitch the image together in Photoshop, keep both the original images of the sections as well as the combined image.  Stitching images together is very time consuming and can be difficult.  Consider outsourcing the reformatting of large format maps. 

 

Maps

Master

Web

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

16 bit grayscale

48 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

600 ppi

300 – 400 ppi for larger maps

150 – 200 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

6000 – 8000 pixels across the long dimension

1078 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

Film

For duplicates (negatives, slides, transparencies), match the original size. However, if original size is not known, the following recommendations are supplied: For a copy negative or transparency, scan at a resolution to achieve 4000 pixels across the long dimension. For duplicates, follow the scanning recommendations for the size that matches the actual physical dimensions of the duplicate.

 

Master scans of camera originals may be captured and saved in RGB, particularly those negatives that contain color information as a result of staining, degradation, or intentional color casts. Derivative files could later be reduced to grayscale in the scanning software or during post-processing editing.

 

Film

Master

Access

Thumbnail

File Format

TIFF

JPEG

JPEG

Bit Depth

16 bit grayscale

48 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

8 bit grayscale

24 bit color

Spatial Resolution

Resolution to be calculated from actual image format and/or dimensions - approx. 2800 ppi for 35mm originals, ranging to approx. 600 ppi for 8”x10” originals

150-200 ppi

144 ppi

Spatial Dimensions

4000 – 8000 pixels across long dimension of image area, depending on size of original and excluding mounts and borders

600 pixels across the long dimension

150 – 200 pixels across the long dimension

 

 

 

Sound Recordings:

Sound Recordings

Master

Access

Web streaming

File Format

Broadcast WAVE (BWF)

Broadcast WAVE (BWF)

MP3 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer III)

Encoding

Uncompressed Pulse-code modulation (PCM)

Uncompressed Pulse-code modulation (PCM)

 

Sampling Frequency

96 or 48 kHz, depending upon characteristics of source item

44.1 kHz

128kbps (bitrate)

Configuration

Monophonic or stereo, depending upon characteristics of source item

Two channel (dual mono or stereo), according to Red Book CD standards

 

Enhancements

 

Minimal cleanup (some removal of unrecorded segments, hisses, hums, artificial tones, and clicks as needed; compression and gain adjustments as needed)