Guidelines: Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials
Still Image Working Group

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. This revision of the guidelines expands on the earlier works and incorporates new material reflecting the advances in imaging science and cultural heritage imaging best practice. The format has changed. Relevant information specific to defined imaging tasks has been grouped into individual chapters, along with guidance on how to apply the guidelines to specific tasks. These guidelines are intended to be used in conjunction with DICE, Golden Thread, OpenDICE and AutoSFR (Digital Image Conformance Environment) targets and software. Together, these guidelines and the DICE testing and monitoring system provide the foundation for a FADGI-compliant digitization program.

Download OpenDice and AutoSFR open source software and manuals.

The Guidelines represents shared best practices for still image materials (e.g., textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).

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2016 Approved Version

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

2015 Draft Document

DRAFT Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2015) (PDF, 1.05 MB)

2010 Document

The 2010 version of the Guidelines drew 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 included additional recommendations of the working group, particularly with regard to equipment and image performance metrics, quality management, and metadata.

Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials (2010)  (PDF, 5.43 MB)

 

Working Groups

Still Image Working Group
This group is involved in a cooperative effort to develop common digitization guidelines for still image materials.

Audio-Visual Working Group
This group works collaboratively on common and sustainable technical guidelines, methods, and practices for digitized and born digital sound recordings and moving images.