Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage ...

1 August 2010 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files For the Following Originals - Manuscripts, Books, Graphic Illustrations, Artwork, Maps, Plans, Photographs, Aerial Photographs, and Objects and Artifacts Acknowledgements: Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group; Rebecca Osborne and Catherine Scott, IBM; Karen Griggs; Erin Rhodes and Steven Puglia, US National Archives and Records Administration Document Information Title Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files Author Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative (FADGI) - Still Image Working Group Document Type Technical Guidelines Publication Date 2009 Revisions to Document Date of Revision Editor(s) August 2010 Don Williams and Michael Stelmach Update to Objective Performance Guidelines and minor editorial changes.

2 Specific changes to Objective Performance Guidelines include a change to the mid-frequency SFR and the addition of Sharpening as a performance measure. February 2009 Erin Rhodes and Steve Puglia Update to complete conversion to (FADGI) - Still Image Working Group guideline November 2008 Karen Griggs Update to convert to (FADGI) - Still Image Working Group guideline September 2008 Rebecca Osborne and Catherine Scott Source Documents Title Author(s)

3 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Records for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files Raster Images Steven Puglia, Jeffrey Reed, and Erin Rhodes National Archives and Records Administration Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group August 2010 Table of Contents 2 II.. 4 Technical OVERVIEWR aster Image Spatial Signal Color Digitization Viewing Monitor Settings, Light Boxes.

4 And Viewing The Practical Monitor Quantifying Scanner/Digital Camera Tests for Objective Performance of Test Frequency and Equipment Digital Imaging Objective Performance Digital Imaging Objective Performance Other Artifacts or Imaging Reference Targets Device-level and Scale and Dimensional Targets for Tone and Color Reflection Transmission Scanning Transmission Scanning III.. 39 IMAGING WORKFLOWA djusting Image Scanning Aimpoints for Photographic Gray Scales Alternative Aimpoints for Kodak Color Control Patches (color bars).

5 44 Aimpoint Minimum and Maximum Color Management Background:..44 International Color Consortium (ICC) Color Management Rendering Color Management Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files i Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group August 2010 Image Color Correction and Tonal Sample Image Processing Workflow:..48 Post-Scan Adjustment/Correction:..48 IV.. 49 DIGITIZATION SPECIFICATIONS FOR RECORD TYPESC leanliness of Work Area, Digitization Equipment, and Backing reflection Scanning Encapsulated or Sleeved Embossed Compensating for Minor Scanning Scanning Scanning Scanning Scanning Illustrations of Record Types.

6 54 Textual Documents, Graphic Illustrations/Artwork, Maps, Plans, and Photographs - Film / Camera Originals - Black-and-White and Color - Transmission Photographs - Prints - Black-and-White, Monochrome, and Color - Reflection Scanning:..62 Aerial - Transmission Aerial - Reflection Scanning:..65 Objects and V. FILE FORMAT 67 VI.. 70 METADATAC ommon Metadata Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files ii Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group August 2010 Assessment of Metadata Needs for Imaging Permanent and Temporary File File Directory Naming Derivative VII.

7 STORAGE 81 Digital Repositories and the Long-Term Management of Files and VIII.. 82 QUALITY Inspection of Digital Image File Original/Document Metadata Image Quality Quality Control of Testing Results and APPENDIX A: Digitizing FOR PRESERVATION REFORMATTING OF 87 APPENDIX B: RECORDS HANDLING FOR 91 APPENDIX C: RESOURCES 92 List of Tables Textual 37 Oversized 38 39 Aerial 40 Graphic Illustrations/ 40 Objects and 41 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials.

8 Creation of Raster Image Master Files iii Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative Still Image Working Group August 2010 I. INTRODUCTION Context The Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files represents shared best practices followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Still Image Working Group for Digitizing Cultural Heritage materials. This group is involved in a cooperative effort to develop common digitization Guidelines for still image materials (such as textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) found in Cultural Heritage institutions.

9 These Guidelines were prepared by members of the working group during the winter of 2009-2010. This document draws substantially on the National Archives and Records Administration s Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Records for Electronic Access: Creation of Production Master Files Raster Images (June 2004), but has been revised and updated in several areas to reflect the current recommendations of the working group and to reflect changes that have occurred in the digitization field during the last five years.

10 Readers will find updated sections covering equipment and image performance metrics, quality management, and metadata in this revision. For more information on the activities of the FADGI Still Image Working Group, please see Purpose One of the tasks of the FADGI Still Imaging Working Group is to develop digital imaging Guidelines that encourage and reflect collaborative digitization practices among federal agencies (and other interested institutions) in order to provide the public with images of uniform quality, and to provide a common set of practices and Technical benchmarks for digitization service providers and manufacturers.