Phase 3 -- Produce the digital collection and access aids

Primary Participants:
Technical Processing Staff from Collection Divisions
NDLP Digital Conversion Coordinator
NDLP Finding Aid and Description Coordinator
Digitizing contractor

Watch this space

Continue through this section:

• Store the digital collection in the digital archive
• Enable access through chosen framework
• Test and refine access framework
• Release to public

Delve deeper for further discussion of:

• Reproduction Quality Issues in a Digital Library System: Observations on the Reproduction of Various Library and Archival Material Formats for Access and Preservation (Carl Fleischhauer & Ricky Erway, December 1992) is one of three American Memory White Papers, which describe experience gained during the American Memory Project. This paper discusses the dichotomous need for high-resolution digital reproductions as a potential preservation format and for lower-resolution versions to provide broad access.
• Elements of Digital Archive Collections: Technical Overview and Format Description (Carl Fleischhauer, October 1994) is another American Memory White Paper. It summarizes the choices made for formats and specifications for the digitized versions of textual materials, color or grayscale images, bitonal images, recorded sound, and video. These choices are reconsidered for new collections as technology advances and new standards emerge, but the approach still holds as of early 1996.
• Frameworks and Finding Aids: Organizing Digital Archival Collections (Carl Fleischhauer, 1994), another American Memory White Paper, discusses the choices of access framework for a digital collection.
• Steps in the Digitization Process (Carl Fleischhauer & Helena Zinkham) lists the steps in preparing a collection for digitization in more detail, emphasizing preparation of the materials, management of a digitization contract, and quality control, all very important aspects of the process. Since these aspects do not relate directly to the technical framework on which this documentation focuses, those steps have not all been detailed here. The steps fall mainly into the planning and production phases.

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