Stafford Library Digitization Policy

Scope
These policies concern digitization projects undertaken by the library or archives using library or archive
resources for the purpose of providing the Columbia College community with free and immediate access
to digitized materials. All digitization projects undertaken shall conform to the College, Library and
Archives mission statements. They shall also conform to the library collection development policy where
applicable. Any digital projects shall be initiated by or partnered with an employee/volunteer of Stafford
Library.
Digitization can be considered an essential function of preservation and access and therefore is worthy of
the investment of time and resources by the Library and its staff.
Currently, these policies only include the digitization of print materials (books, bound periodicals,
manuscript collections, etc); other materials such as photographs may be addressed at a later time.
Copyright
a. All digitization policies will comply with current U.S. copyright law
b. Any digitized items in the Library and/or Archives collection where the original copyright holder
cannot be determined will be designated an orphan work and noted as such in its metadata and
visibly online. Any potential authors wishing to claim an orphan work may do so by contacting
Janet Caruthers ( jaocaruthers@ccis.edu - (573) 875-7376 ).
c. Personal donations to the Library and/or Archives collection will be given the option of a
copyright waiver
d. Any personal donations not accepting copyright waiver will be digitized under the policies below
but only for preservation purposes and in-house use by the staff. Any personal donations
accepting the copyright waiver will be digitized under the policies below and included in the
assets of the Library and/or Archives accessible by the online repository.
Pre-Requisites for Digitization
a. Works selected for digitization by the Library and/or Archive shall fit the scope and purpose of
this digitization policy.
b. The following qualifications and criteria should be considered for items selected for digitization
o Uniqueness: Any item deemed singular or rare should be given high priority
o Historical Significance: Items of significant historical value should be given high
priority
o Regional Significance: Items documenting or relating to the history of the College,
Columbia or Boone County should be given priority
o Pedagogical Value: Any items of educational value for the students, faculty and patrons
of the College should be given high priority
o Previous use or potential use by patrons: If a physical item has seen a high volume of
previous use or a high volume of use is anticipated by patrons its digitization should be a
high priority
o Size/Format: The size and/or format may limit/exclude items from being digitized by the
library if the item is not compatible with the librarys scanning equipment.

Fragility: Any items that are deemed fragile should be given high priority so long as no
damage is incurred on the item. Any fragile item initially deemed too fragile will first be
reinforced before any digitization occurs

Scanning/Imaging
a. Any items/materials that are rare or fragile should be handled carefully with clean hands. Any
photographs should be handled with gloves. Ink pens, food, and drinks should be kept away from
materials being digitized or stored.
b. When scanning the procedure will be to individually scan desired pages/images by grouping,
crop/format the master file per the digitization standards, label the master file with a consistent
title format and store the master file in the designated storage space. Service master files may be
created as a working copy of the master file for image manipulation and conversion. Service
master files shall be converted to JPG or JPG2000 access files for preservation on the Web.
c. File naming conventions should be consistent and pertain to the subject matter of their content
within each project. Each project/collection shall receive an individual identifier for organization.
This identifier shall appear as the prefix to each file name within a project. Each file name should
be unique and easily tracked.
d. Scanning text based documents should record the textual content in as much clarity possible
without doing harm to the original text.
e. For text digitization standards see Appendix A below
f. The scanner used for scanning any physical materials shall be the ScanSnap SV600 within
Stafford Library. As need and new technology become available the scanning equipment used
may change/vary. See Storage policy for details on the storage of files and master files.
Metadata
Definition: The Bibliographical Center for Research and the Collaborative Digitization Program define
metadata as descriptive information about digital resources. There are several types of metadata, often
separated into several elements such as descriptive, rights, structural, and administrative metadata.
Descriptive metadata is used for the indexing, discovery, and identification of a digital resource; rights
metadata describes an item or resources relationship with copyright law; structural metadata is
information used to display and navigate digital resources; also includes information on internal
organization of the digital resource; and administrative metadata represents the management
information for the digital object, which may include information needed to access and display the
resource, as well as rights management information. For the purposes of this document we are concerned
with descriptive, rights and administrative metadata.
Descriptive and Rights Metadata
a. All Digital Collections should utilize Dublin Core as the minimum metadata standard for the
creation of descriptive and rights metadata.
a. All projects should follow the most current version of Dublin Cores Best Practices,
including required metadata fields.
b. When subject headings are used they should work with an identified and consistent controlled
vocabulary standard, such as Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), or from a
personalized vocabulary set devised for the purpose of the project. The choice may depend on
intended use and audience
c. Other means of subject access, such as keywords, need not be standardized.

Administrative Metadata
Administrative metadata shall be created for the preservation master files; see Preservation policies for
details.
Repository
There shall be two separate committed digital repositories, one for preservation master files and another
for service/access master files and any subsequent manipulated images emerging from the service/access
master files such as thumbnails, pdfs, .gifs, etc.
These repositories will be created and managed in consultation with interested parties of the library and
Columbia College staff.
Storage
a. The procedure for digital storage of all library/archive materials shall be consistent for each type
of item.
b. All master files and any accompanying metadata should be stored on a secure server space within
the Librarys domain.
c. All digitized library or archives owned works shall be represented in the online repository.
d. All digitized library or archives owned works shall have hyperlinks in the online repository
between their records and the records of their physical counterparts.
Accessibility
a. All digital collections should conform to Stafford Library accessibility standards as they apply.
Some collections without owner copyright permission may not be readily accessed online.
b. Physical access to digital materials through the library will be through an in-house terminal.
c. Online access to digital materials through the library will be through password protection.
Preservation
Documentation
In order to keep a record of a project and to establish institutional memory in the
case of staff turn-over, projects should document the following:

File naming conventions

Subject standards used
Scanning settings
File formats of scanned images, both master files and access images
Metadata encoding standards used for both for master files and for access images
Location of master files
Location of metadata
Date of project completion
Migration information
Name of project contact

Master Files
Digitization projects should create and maintain digital master files of scanned items for long
term preservation. These masters should be stored in a secure digital storage space. In most cases
these master files may be preserved indefinitely although there may be exceptions
Format:
o Master files of images should be created as TIFFs in two different categories.
Preservation master files Shall be maintained as originally scanned before any
image manipulation occurs. A copy of a preservation master file shall be used to
make that items service/access master file.
Service/access master files Shall be available for image manipulation in order
to create lower quality derivatives such as .pdfs or .gifs for public representation.
In cases where the service/access master files have been substantially
altered or digitally degraded, a replacement may be created from the
original preservation master file.
Metadata
o Master files should include preservation metadata documenting the following:
Object Identifier
Location, call number, size, and format of original (analog) source
Copyright information
Scanner used in image capture
Software used in image capture
Image capture date
Bit depth (1-bit bitonal, 4-bit grayscale, 24-bit RGB, etc)
Resolution (dpi)
Digital file format
Compression information
Image enhancement, if any
Migration information as files are converted to new formats and migrated to new
hardware for preservation purposes
Descriptive metadata as specified in Metadata policies
o Metadata encoding for master files should be standardized in a consistent vocabulary
schema such as Qualified Dublin Core or Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
(METS).

Review and Migration

a. All digitization projects will be reviewed annually in order to refresh and migrate master files and
any accompanying metatdata as necessary
a. Master files and metadata may be migrated to new file formats and standards that have
also been updated in Appendix A, and all files may be migrated to new storage as
necessary
b. Any future format used for master files and their metadata should be open source, selfsupporting and sustainable; any future storage hardware or preservation systems should
be secure.
Revisions to the Policy

Parts of this policy are intended to be flexible and a work in progress per the digitization needs of the
library and archives
The policy should be reviewed on an annual basis for redefinition of the scope and purpose of the policy
and to keep up to date on any new practices and standards in the digitization field
Any future policy revision will be done through collaboration between the library director, the library
assistant director, the digitization staff, and any others the library director chooses to include on the
process

Document Based on WIU Libraries Digitization Policies Recommendations draft http://www.wiu.edu/libraries/administration/policies/DigitizationPolicies_0809.pdf

Appendix A

Image Quality Standards

Document
Type

Expected
Outcome

Image Parameters

Resolution

Local
Copying,
including
ILL and
Reserves
Repository
Service/Ac
cess
Master
files

Digital Master
(Preservation)

Display
Format

Printing &
Reproduction

Thumbnail
Image

Display
Software

Bit
Depth

Accurate
Represent
ation

200 to 300
ppi

TIFF
or
PDF

Image of
text*

300 ppi
8-bit
maxiumum grays
cale

TIFF

GIF or
JPG
(200
ppi)

PDF (300
ppi)

GIF or
JPG
(72 ppi)

Black &
white
document
s
that
require
color to
produce
the
most
accurate
representa
tion

400 ppi

TIFF

GIF or
JPG
(200
ppi)

PDF (300
ppi)

GIF or
JPG
(72 ppi)

24bit
color
(RGB)

TIFF or
PDF
image
viewer
Adobe
reader
or
Image
viewer
Adobe
reader
or
Image
viewer

* Resolution depends on character size (1 mm)

Information based on:
Library of Congress, 2006. Library of Congress Technical Standards for Digital Conversion of Text
and Graphic Materials. Washington, D.C.: The Library. URL:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/about/techStandards.pdf
Puglia, Steven, Reed, Jeffrey and Rhodes, Erin, 2002. Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Archival
Materials for Electronic Access. Washington, D.C.: National Archives & Records
Administration. 87 pages. URL:
http://www.archives.gov/preservation/technical/guidelines.html