Online Resources for Digitisation Projects
The DRI often responds to questions about digitisation, so to help facilitate the search and retrieval of valuable information and guidance, we have compiled the following selection of resources. There are many resources available, but we have found these particular ones to be written with consideration and integrity.
Please note that the inclusion of a resource in this list does not mean that we endorse its directives; every digitisation project has its own unique considerations and concomitant methodologies. However, we hope that these resources will prove useful in delineating some of the questions to consider when embarking on a digitisation project.
General Overview
Caring for Digital Content: Mapping International Approaches
Results of mapping exercise carried out to identify international exemplars of repositories and organisations working with digital data management.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Preservation Management of Digital Materials: The Handbook
Handbook giving an overview of the issues surrounding digital preservation
Digital Preservation Coalition
Collection Ingest, Management and Preservation
Overview of digitisation process, including planning, hardware and software and standards selection
DARIAH
Project Planning
Choosing Content Management Technologies
Guide to choosing content management technologies for use in libraries, archives, museums, galleries and other cultural institutions.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Decision Tree for Digitization Projects
Flow chart guiding selection of material for digitisation
Canadian Council of Archives
Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural Heritage Materials
Extensive guide to project planning, image capture and storage
National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH)
Digitization Activities: Project Planning and Management Outline
Guidelines for planning a digitisation project
Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (US)
Our Cultural Heritage: A Strategy for Action for Public Libraries
Overview of Irish Library Council Heritage project with bast practice practical guidelines for undertaking a digitisation project
The Library Council (Ireland)
Costing Digital Preservation
Excellent collection of resources to help you cost a digital preservation project (more than just actual digitisation)
Open Planets Foundation Knowledge Base Wiki
File Formats & Minimum Technical Standards
DRI Factsheets: File Formats
Guide to suitable digital file formats for ingest into digital repositories.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Digital File Types
Description of different digital file types (JPEG, TIFF etc)
US National Archives and Records Administration
File Format Conversion
Guidelines for migrating file formats
National Archives UK
Digital Imaging Standards Policies
Imaging standards requirements for scanning, photographic capture, and born digital file creation
Trinity College Library Dublin
Digital Records: Digitised Image Specification
Recommended minimum standards for image capture
National Archives UK
Digitisation: Audio and Audiovisual
Audio: Digitising Analogue Media
Extensive guidelines on digitisation of audio, workflows, troubleshooting etc.
JISC Digital Media
EBU recommendation: Digitisation of programme material in audio archives
Guidelines for project planning, specifically for digitisation of audio
Prestocentre
Film Scanning Considerations
White paper on the digitisation of AV material in the Netherlands Insitute for Sound and Vision, highlighting issues and challenges
Prestocentre
Advice on Moving Images
Extensive guidelines on digitisation of AV material, project planning, file format selection, etc.
JISC Digital Media
Hardware
Building the Digital Repository of Ireland Infrastructure
A report summarising the architecture of the DRI infrastructure and how it meets the digital preservation and functionality requirements of DRI.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Choosing Content Management Technologies
Guide to help those working in cultural institutions with choosing content management systems suitable for digital content
Digital Repository of Ireland
Still Image Capture: Hardware and Software
Guidelines for selection capture equipment and imaging software
JISC Digital Media
Endangered Archives Programme: Guidelines for copying archival material
Guidelines for image capture, including minimum standards and hardware choices
British National Library
Digitisation of a Museum Collection
Detailed report on the digitisation of museum objects, including equipment choices and costs
Waterford Museum of Treasures
Metadata, Vocabularies
Qualified Dublin Core and the Digital Repository of Ireland
Guidelines for anyone using the Qualified Dublin Core metadata guidelines to prepare content for ingest into DRI and other digital repositories.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Metadata Quality Control
A five-point guide to creating good quality metadata for data from libraries and archives.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Dublin Core and the Digital Repository of Ireland
Guidelines for anyone using the Dublin Core metadata guidelines to prepare content for ingest into DRI and other digital repositories.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Putting Things in Order: a Directory of Metadata Schemas and Related Standards
An overview of metadata standards, with links to the main websites for each
JISC Digital Media
Controlling your Language: a Directory of Metadata Vocabularies
An overview of widely used controlled vocabularies and thesauri
JISC Digital Media
Policy
DRI Policies
All of DRI's official published policies to date.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Digital Preservation Policy 3rd Edition
Overview of the NLA's digitisation preservation policy
National Library of Australia
Digital Information at Library and Archives Canada: An Overview of Progress and Issues
Overview of LAC's born digital archiving, digitisation and digital preservation policies
Library and Archives Canada
Irish Manuscripts Commission Digitisation Policy
Overview of considerations relating to digitisation and digital preservation
Irish Manuscripts Commission
Collections of Resources
DRI Publications
DRI publications, including guidelines, reports, policies and factsheets covering a broad range of digital archiving requirements.
Digital Repository of Ireland
Resources for digital curators
Data curation resources collected by the DCC since 2004.
Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Centre
Building Digital Collections: Technical Information and Background Papers
Best practices for digitisation, online presentation and access, and digital preservation of historical materials.
Library of Congress
Digitisation Resources
A resource-list of information regarding digitisation standards covering photographs, images, text, moving image and sound, both digitised and born digital.
DigitalNZ
Project Workbook for the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA)
Provides useful guidelines regarding digitisation projects from principles to file formats
University College Dublin (UCD)