List of standard accepted formats for the digitisation of different materials to be met by the digitisation vendors and contracted to work for the IISH. This were created alongside the file format policy for born digital content with the intention to have homogenous formats across all digital assets in Archivematica to ensure long term preservation.
The list differs from the born digital file format policy as normalisation should not be necessary, however the access copy created is listed.
The information is listed by analogue material type, the last column lists all the additional files that are requested in the digitisation order (i.e. image files are produced for all materials). The table can then be used to find the file formats for that additional file.
You can check the properties of audio and video with MediaInfo, to be used online or for download from this website: https://mediaarea.net/MediaInfoOnline.
Object category | Properties to be measured in preservation format | Preservation format | Alternative format | Intermediate access copy | Possible Additional files | material types examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Audio |
| WAV | N.a. | MP3 | Image of casing Image of container (if different) Transcription (txt file) | Cassette, audio tape, Minidisc |
Video | Audio:
Video:
| MKV-container file with lossless FFV1-encoding for the video signal and LPCM -encoding for the audio signal. | In some cases MXF, MOV, MP4 can be acceptable | MP4-container with a H.264-videostream and a AAC-audiostream | Image of casing Image of container (if different) Transcription (txt file) | VHS, MiniDV |
| Film | same as above | MKV-container file with lossless FFV1-encoding for the video signal and LPCM -encoding for the audio signal. | N.a. | Transcription (txt file) | Film reel | |
| Image | Gray- or colour values, bit depth, resolution, colour space, if used: ICC profile | Baseline TIFF 6.0 uncompressed | N.a. | JPEG | OCR (of printed text) | Archives, photographs, posters, objects |
| Text-OCR | ALTO XML | N.a. | N.a. | N.a. |
Notes on scanning procedures and preparation for digitisation
- The current IISH policy to handle all material preparation in house for digitisation projects (i.e. removing metal, ironing creases, repairing rips)
- Digitisation companies cannot use sheet feeders to handle the digitisation
- Books and brochures must stay intact for the digitisation process and spines must be handled with care
- Closed archives and collections and materials with sensitive information may require permission from the archival owner before the materials can leave the IISH premises, observe the conditions of the donation agreement.
- Closed archives and collections and materials with sensitive information may require a confidentiality agreement with the digitisation company, covering all employees, to ensure all information is protected.
- All scans are cropped clean, leaving around 50 pixels black around each scan.
- All scans are rotated to the correct position