Digital Conversion In-House Guidelines

Organizations can choose this option if they wish to undertake their own digitization project. The advantages can be development of digital imaging project experience by "doing it yourself", control over process, flexibility and security. However your organization is responsible for quality controls and needs to understand and enforce standards and best practices for both imaging and metadata.

Eligible Projects

• Conversion of video, film, negatives, audio, and paper-based formats into digital formats
  • Materials must:
    • no longer be restricted by copyright
    • copyright is clearly held by the organization
    • documentation is available that copyright has been turned over or lost to the public domain
• Digital collections storage/rehousing/backup
  • Hardware/software
  • Initial setup costs for hosting service to store digital collection
• Hiring a contractor to create descriptive metadata or create edited transcriptions of digitized materials. (You may apply for just a metadata project or transcription project)
• Hiring of a consultant to research copyright status of collection material prior to being digitally converted
• Access to "Minnesota Reflections" website to host your digital images on the Internet

NOTE: You may request funding for separate phases of larger digitization projects.

What is NOT Funded

• Purchases of equipment only
• Conversion of material into unacceptable Digital Data Formats
• See Collections Care and Management Guidelines for:
  • Developing a digital records management program
  • Developing policies for your digital archives or library
• Ongoing costs of hosting service to store image collections

Completing the Application

The following advice on how to complete the application will help you shape your project; suggestions are numbered to correspond to sections of the application form and augment guidance provided on the application form.

1. Project Description

• Describe the materials to be digitized and explain how they were selected. Specify the quantity of materials involved, using exact numbers where possible or estimating quantity by sampling. Be sure to indicate that you have all necessary rights to digitize the collection(s) for online delivery to the general public.
• What are the physical characteristics of the original source collection? It is on a stable format? Is the storage for the original source collection secure, stable and long term? What will happen to the original source collection once it is digitized?
• Prioritizing Digital Preservation Media Tasks

1. Analog media that is deteriorating or fading in the case of color photos
2. Media that require rare/outmoded devices for playback.
3. Material in your collection that could not be replaced if it were lost or damaged.
4. Material in your collection that is frequently requested or accessed and has high research value

• High priority is given to film and video meeting the following measures:

• Footage related to Minnesota.
• It is unique or inaccessible to the public.
• Otherwise likely to be damaged or lost.
• Close to the original generation and of good image quality, and/or accompanied by documentation.

• Low priority is given to material widely distributed, is preserved elsewhere and/or if the donation requires donor copies or has restrictive conditions.

• Will derivatives be produced of the original master digital assets? Why are they needed? What is the process for producing the derivatives files?
• Original images larger than 40 x 60 inches require special attention and must be clearly identified in the application
• Provide three samples of descriptive metadata; if applicable, include samples of or links to relevant portions of existing indexes, catalogs or archival finding aids.
• Download Metadata Fields for Images and Documents Worksheet (XLS)
• Download Metadata Field Description for Audio and Video (XLS)
• Download Minnesota Reflections Metadata Entry Guidelines, Version 2.2 (PDF)
  • Describe tools and database used for collecting and storing metadata
• Provide example of the file naming convention
• Describe the archival format will the final digital files be in and as well as the format for public access
• What steps will you take to reach your desired outcome? Who will perform the quality control? What procedures will be followed? What resources are needed to ensure quality control?
• Where will the digital assets be stored? What will they be stored on? How many back up copies will be made?
• If you do not yet have finding aids for your archival collections, apply first for a Basic Processing Project grant in the Archives and Library Materials portion of the Collections Care and Management category.
• Transcription: For handwritten documents use "Transcribing Manuscripts: Rules Worked Out by the Minnesota Historical Society" for best practice guidelines in transcribing.
• Key points to consider:

1. Don’t assume everything should be digitized. Do an assessment to determine what holdings are most important.
2. Access is key. The more accessible the materials are, the more they will be used.
   • Digitizing makes it possible to produce a good catalog, which then makes the value of the materials obvious to others.
   • On-line catalogues and promotional information are critical to encourage broad usage.
3. Compared to film, video is “overlooked” for preservation.
4. Transferring older videotapes and film to digital formats requires a plan and realistic timeline.

Organizations will have or develop the adequate skills and procedures to meet the technical guidelines set out in Minnesota Local History Services' document Digital Imaging for the Small Organization. This guide is a repacking of the standards from the more intensive document Western States Digital Imaging Best Practices Version 1.0 but is written with the small museum/organization in mind with an all volunteer staff or a paid staff of 1-3 individuals to help navigate the highly technical standards. Larger organizations with access to more technical resources should refer to the Western States Digital Imaging Best Practices Version 1.0 document.

 

2. Need and Rationale

• Explain the collection’s historical significance in documenting individuals, events, developments, organizations and/or places. What are the goals you hope to achieve? What are your preservation goals? What are your public access goals? Describe demand by your users for the materials.

3. Work Plan and Timetable

• Provide a month-by-month work plan that includes the following steps: materials preparation, digitization, creation of metadata, accuracy check, website posting and project evaluation. When appropriate, include who will be doing each step.

4. Project Personnel

• Describe the experience of project personnel with digitization projects. What additional training will they need? If you request funding for that training, specify when it will occur and how much of the project is contingent upon it.
• Please list all the people involved in adding/modifying content and their role and if they will need training. Who will be responsible for the various parts of executing the strategy?
• Reminder: Services and materials that cost less than $20,000 may be bid or purchased on the open market. For purchases between $500 and $5,000, the grantee must maintain financial records that verify the cost was based on at least three verbal quotes. For purchases greater than $5,000 and less than $20,000, the grantee must maintain financial records that verify the cost was based on competitive quotes based on written specifications.
  Services and materials that cost $20,000 or more must be contracted for using a formal bidding process. All services to be per­formed by such professionals as ar­chitects, consultants, engineers, historical researchers, etc., must be offered to a minimum of three bid­ders. Evidence of the offering along with copies of the bids received must be included in the project financial records.
• The digital assets will need to be maintained and monitored, how many people and who (staff or volunteers) are assigned to maintain it?

5. Enduring Value

• Proper environments for collections held in public trust contribute to their preservation. And accessibility enhancements allow greater access. Describe why and how the outcomes and benefits of your project will have a lasting impact and value for the community.

6. Sustainability

• What impact on your budget do you expect your project to have? Will you be able to maintain the digital assets after the grant period has ended? If you used grant funds to pay for a software license or a hosting service, how will that license or contract be maintained?

 

7. Evaluation

• Evaluation Metrics are a requirement. Please choose the green “+” in the upper right corner to add each evaluation metric. Begin with short term goals, followed by medium and long term. You may add as many as are appropriate. The legislature requires all projects to have measurable outcomes. To be an outcome there must be a change in knowledge, status, or behavior. To be measurable, indicators need to be established in order to know when change has occurred. The measurement will enable you to assess at the end what happened in the project since planning it. For example, the public is able to do _____ (outcome) and that will be measured by a change in a number from X to Y (indicator).
• What are the performance outcomes? How will you know if it was worthwhile developing this? Determine what you are benchmarking against and how will you analyze the results?
• How you will evaluate the public's use of the digitized materials and the effectiveness of the methods employed in digitizing and displaying them?
• How will what was learned from this project be applied to future digitization projects?

8. Budget

• Provide a complete project budget on the budget worksheet, showing how each budget item was determined.