LibGuides: Washington Digital Heritage Grants: Standards and Technical Information

Standards and Best Practices for Digitization and Digital Initiatives

The cultural heritage community uses a wide variety of standards and best practices to create digital collections and resources. The following is a very brief sampling of those guidelines. Applicants are not required to use specific standards or best practices, although doing so will strengthen their application(s).

The Orbis Cascade Alliance has done extensive work in documenting best practices for metadata creation, including the creation and implementation of Dublin Core metadata, and use of uniform copyright statements. This documentation will largely inform the aggregation of digital collections at a regional level in service of a Digital Public Library of America service hub. Applicants are encouraged to explore these standards and best practices in preparing a proposal: https://www.orbiscascade.org/programs/ulc/digital-collections/documentation/. Applicants should give particular attention to the Alliance’s Dublin Core Best Practices, Version 2.3 (https://www.orbiscascade.org/dublin-core-best-practices/) should the use of Dublin Core metadata be included in your proposal.
The Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) produces guidelines and best practices that are widely used in the library/archives/museums fields. Applicants performing digitization of graphic (i.e., still and moving images) and textual materials should give particular attention to Technical Guidelines for the Still Image Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials (2016). All FADGI guidelines are available at: http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/.
The Open Washington, Open Education Resources Network (http://www.openwa.org) offers an introductory module to understanding and using OERs in educational settings.
The Sustainable Heritage Network (SHN) is a collaborative project that complements the work of indigenous peoples globally to preserve, share, and manage cultural heritage and knowledge. The SHN website includes a wealth of practice-focused tutorials and tools focusing on the lifecycle of digital stewardship: https://sustainableheritagenetwork.org/
Comprehensive guides for planning and carrying out digital projects can be found through Recollection Wisconsin's Digital Readiness Toolkit (https://recollectionwisconsin.org/digital-readiness-toolkit) and the Digital Collections Stewardship course series created through a partnership between WebJunction and SHN. The Digital Collections Stewardship course series is freely available now through WebJunction (https://learn.webjunction.org/course/index.php?categoryid=61) and will be in the future through SHN.
The Washington Rural Heritage Metadata Guidelines, Version 3.2, April 2024 (https://washstatelib.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=76333333) and Digitization Specifications (https://washstatelib.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=76303000) should be used when planning and developing a proposal for the WRH program. See https://washstatelib.libguides.com/communitydigitization/wrh for more information on digitizing materials for Washington Rural Heritage.

Digitization Equipment (Washington Rural Heritage Applicants only; other applicants may use as appropriate)

Technical specifications for the equipment and capture/reformatting used by the Washington Rural Heritage program are largely derived from guidelines issued by FADGI (see above) as well as guidelines issued by the Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP). Non-WRH grant applicants are free to use these specifications as a reference, although your own reformatting and equipment specifications may vary.

Reference to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by WSL.

Equipment Specification Sheet

For many projects, a quality, color flatbed or film scanner along with image optimization software is needed to produce, optimize, and submit high quality image files for most material types. A high-end digital camera or overhead scanner is necessary for projects that aim to digitize large-format items, a high volume of books, or three dimensional (3-D) objects. Such a system can cost upward of $20,000. The 2021-22 Washington Digital Heritage/Washington Rural Heritage grant cycle could supplement the cost of such a system. If your project requires such a system, consider your options carefully. You may also contract out this work, find matching local funds, or select material that does not require such specialized equipment.

Unless you have a lot of audio or video that needs to be digitized (beyond the 100 items required for this project), we suggest you outsource the digitization of audio or video.

As always, the equipment you need for your project will depend upon the format, size, and type of the items you plan to digitize. Please consult the digitization specifications requirement table below for some general item types and recommended resolution parameters.

Flatbed scanner minimum specifications:

Capture Software: Must give the operator the control to set white and black points and turn off automatic sharpening. You may also consider purchasing software to optimize the images for printing and Web publication.

Optical Resolution: Minimum of 2400 pixels per inch (ppi) optical resolution uninterpolated. However, consider buying a scanner with the highest optical resolution you can afford. 2400 ppi is enough to cover most text, photo and some film sizes but is on the low side as far as optical resolution is concerned.

Size: This depends upon what you plan on scanning but again consider buying a scanner with the largest scan size you can afford. You will want to leave at least a quarter of an inch around the original during capture. Most flatbed scanners offer bed sizes between 8” x 12” and 12” x 17”.

Bit Depth: Equipment should be able to capture at least 1 bit (black and white), 16-bit (grayscale), and 24-bit (color). Most flatbed scanners can capture 36 to 48-bit or higher.

Dynamic Range: Dmax (maximum value of Density) of 3.5 as a minimum. Again, consider buying a scanner with the highest dynamic range you can afford. This is especially true should you be scanning film or negatives.

Transparency Adapter: If your project includes transmitted light materials (e.g., film, glass plate negatives, or slide positives) you will need a transparency adapter (i.e., back-lit lid or film tray). If there is a lot of film you may consider a film scanner.

As a frame of reference, scanners used by Washington Rural Heritage staff include the Epson Perfection V850-M Pro Photo Scanner and the Epson Expression 12000XL.

Digitization Recommendations and Minimum Requirements for Washington Rural Heritage

Digital imaging for Washington Rural Heritage is based on the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services’ (ALCTS) Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations, which can be accessed at: http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/minimum-digitization-capture-recommendations. Please submit tagged image file format (.tif) master files to WRH staff on an external hard drive or digital versatile disc (DVD).

Below is a simplified table for your reference.

Format type	Recommended parameters	Minimum parameters
Audio	Sample rate: 44.1 kHz Bit depth: 24 bits	<Sample rate: 44.1 kHz Bit depth: 16 bits
Textual documents (including black and white text, graphic illustrations, artwork originals, maps, plans, other oversized documents)	4000-6000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., a clean, high contrast 8.5 x 11” document would need to be scanned at 400 – 600 ppi)	3000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., a clean, high contrast 8.5 x 11” document would need to be scanned 300 ppi)
Photo Negatives small negatives (35 mm and up to 4”x5”) 4”x5” and up to 8”x10” 8”x10” and up	4000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., 35 mm would need to be scanned at approx 2800 ppi) 6000 across long edge 8000 across long edge	3000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., 35 mm would need to be scanned at approx 2100 ppi)
Photographic prints Up to 8”x10” 8”x10” to 11”x14” 11”x14” and up	4000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., 3.5x5” would be scanned at 800 ppi) 6000 across long edge 8000 across long edge	3000 pixels across the long edge (e.g., 3.5x5” would be scanned at 600 ppi)
Objects and artifacts 35 mm equiv medium format equiv large format equiv	pixel array of 4,500 pixels by 3,100 pixels (14 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 15” by 10.3”). Pixel array of 5,200 pixels by 4,200 pixels (22 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 17.3” by 14”) Pixel array up to 16,000 pixels by 12,500 pixels (200 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 53.3” by 41.7”)	pixel array of 3,000 pixels by 2,000 pixels (6 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 10” by 6.7”) pixel array of 4,000 pixels by 3,000 pixels (12 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 13.3” by 10”) pixel array of 4,800 pixels by 3,700 pixels (18 megapixels, equivalent to 300 ppi at 16” by 12.5”)

Note: To determine scanning resolution, divide the recommended pixels per inch (ppi) parameter by the number of inches across the long edge of the item being scanned. For example: Divide 6000 ppi by 10 in. for an 8 x 10 in. photographic print. This means the photo should be scanned at 600 ppi. For those items that do not divide evenly, round up and scan at the next highest ppi setting on your scanner.

Washington Digital Heritage Grants: Standards and Technical Information

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