Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries Digital Projects Policy
Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries maintain a digital archive at
http://www.fdu.edu/digitallibrary . The archive is maintained by the Technical Services and
Digital Projects Librarian at the Library on the Florham campus in the Monninger Center.
Projects are completed and added to the archive at the discretion of the Digital Projects
Committee, whose membership includes librarians from both FDU campuses. Projects may be
submitted by anyone on FDU faculty or staff. The following pages provide a form for submitting
digital projects, and instructions for completing that form.
Projects are selected based on the following criteria:
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Usage by students/faculty/administration/outside researchers
Copyright—are materials in public domain, or University-owned
Originality—materials should not have been digitized by another institution
Feasibility—in house project we are equipped to handle, or one that needs to be
outsourced, or requires more equipment in-house
 Funding—All requested projects must have a funding source—either from
University money or a grant.
 State, National, or International interest in digitized materials (as opposed to items
that are only of interest to the FDU community)
Small projects may be completed in house by the Digital Projects Librarian.
A small project is defined as:
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Fewer than 100 pages of scanning (more at the DP Librarian’s discretion)
Text, photos, or audio sources within the item limit
Size of items cannot be greater than 8 ½ by 11 inches
Item must be easy to take apart, or have a binding that is not an impediment to
scanning.
What cannot be done in-house:
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Very large or fragile items
Multiple full-length books
Items that are protected by copyright, unless permission is obtained in writing
Video digitization (i.e., conversion of VHS or DVD to an MPEG file).
Specifications
Depending on the material being digitized, the specifics of the project will vary. In
general:
 Text materials should be scanned at 300 x 300 resolution or higher, 24-bit color
(except for things like master’s theses, which should be done in black and white),
and saved as searchable PDF. Individually scanned pages should be combined as
a single PDF when appropriate. Web files should be optimized in Adobe
Professional for easy opening and downloading.
 Photographic materials and maps should be scanned at 600 x 600 resolution, 24bit color (even for black and white), and saved as a JPEG. Outsourced projects
should also have an accompanying high-resolution TIFF file for archiving.
 Audio and video materials should be in MP3 and MPEG formats, respectively.
The Digital Projects Process Summary
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Proposed projects are reviewed by the Digital Projects Librarian to determine if
they would need to be completed in-house or need to be outsourced.
Proposals are brought before the Digital Projects Committee, and will be
prioritized according to the criteria listed above. Requestors are notified about the
approval or rejection of a project.
Requestor will arrange for delivery or pick-up of project materials. Requestor
should also provide a spreadsheet with metadata for the project, per discussion
with the DP Librarian.
For in-house projects—DP Librarian will determine equipment and software
needs for scanning or conversion of materials. Materials will then be processed in
accordance with an agreed-upon schedule. Process continues with the last 2 points
of this summary.
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For outsourced projects, DP Librarian will write up a set of specifications for the
project, and send them to our digitization vendor for a quote. The quote is then
signed by the appropriate Budget Officer and returned to the vendor.
The DP Librarian will create an inventory of items, and assign an accession
number to each item.
The items and inventory are packaged and sent to the vendor for digital
processing. Rare or fragile items may be hand-delivered and picked up by the DP
Librarian.
If project funding is from a grant, an account must be established with the
university for the grant funds if this hasn’t been done already. The appropriate
grant office (University Advancement or Grants and Special Projects) can help set
up the account.
Items and digital files are returned to the DP Librarian upon completion. DP
Librarian will inspect the returned materials and make sure they meet the
specifications.
DP Librarian will establish a collection and metadata template within the Content
DM digital archive system. The digital archive homepage will be updated
accordingly.
For PDFs, JPEG photo files, and audio/video, items are loaded into Content DM,
and metadata from the spreadsheet is entered for each item. Items are then
uploaded and made available.
For items requiring hand transcription, JPEG and text transcription files are
merged in the system, and metadata is entered for each item. Items are then
uploaded and made available.
Outsourced projects will require a purchase order that should be made out to the
digitization vendor. This needs to be signed by the appropriate budget officer.
Instructions for Digital Project Proposal Form
1. Project title: This should reflect the department or sponsoring organization, and indicate
the content. Examples: FDU Archive photographs, Meadowlands Commission Maps,
Education Department Theses, etc.
2. Requested by: Include the contact information for the person responsible for the project.
This person will be the contact for the Digital Projects Librarian for project status and
questions.
3. Date requested: The date you are submitting the form.
4. Requested project completion date: Include the date that you would like to see the
project completed and available in the digital archive. The date is negotiable with the
Digital Projects Librarian, relative to the scope and complexity of the project. Please
indicate if this is a rush project. A project is only considered a “rush” if it is needed for an
accreditation deadline or some other immediate high-level administrative purpose.
5. Description of project: Please describe your project in a paragraph or two. Tell us what
is needed based on the following:
Needs to be digitized, or is already digitized. If it is already digitized, please indicate
whether or not the item meets the specifications listed in the preceding policy with regard
to resolution and color settings.
Text: If the item includes text documents, and what type—bound books or collections of
papers (if not already digitized). Indicate if the books are fragile, and their size (measure
from top to bottom in centimeters). If they are all the same size, you can indicate that.
Indicate who has the copyright on the materials; if it is an institution or publisher
other than FDU, you will have to provide written permission from the author for the item
to be scanned. If any materials are handwritten, text transcription should be included as a
need.
Photos or Maps: Indicate the size of these, and whether they are black and white or color.
Sizes are preferred in centimeters, though for photos you can use standard designations in
inches (6 x 8, etc.).
Audio or video: Indicate if audio needs to be converted from a physical medium such as a
cassette tape, microcassette tape, or CD. If you know the length in hours, minutes, and/or
seconds, please indicate that. Videos are preferred in streaming MPEG format, but
indicate if you have VHS tapes or DVDs to be converted. The copyright restrictions
listed under “text” apply here as well.
Other considerations: Let us know if there are special handling requirements. Does the
item have fold-out pages? Are any items loose and need to be arranged? If it is a
document, can bindings be cut for easier scanning, or does the item have to stay intact?
6. Scope of project: Provide the information indicated:
Number of volumes or documents: Give the number of materials being sent for
digitization. For books, indicate a total number of volumes. For all other types of
material, give a count of items.
Format: Indicate the format of the material (document, image, artifact, audio/video tape
or CD, etc.). If the item is already digitized or is in an electronic format, indicate what
file types are included (e.g., PDF, JPEG, MPEG, AVI, .doc, .rtf, etc.)
Approximate number of pages: For books and documents, give a total count of all pages
for all materials. Only the total number is needed.
Illustrations: Fill in if the material has illustrations, and if they are color, black and white,
or a mixture of both. Write N/A if there are no illustrations.
Image quality: Are the items faded? Is there blurred printing or handwriting? Is all print
legible? Are photos grainy or highly pixelated? Be aware that some low-quality or
damaged images can be fixed, but there’s no guarantee they can be completely fixed.
Are the items fragile?: Write “yes” if the items include old or damaged materials, or if
they will require special handling of some kind. If not, write “no”.
Are the materials handwritten?: Write “yes” if they are. Handwritten materials require the
creation of additional text files. The documents themselves are digitized as JPEGs rather
than PDFs.
Metadata provided?: Indicate “yes” if you can provide the following information. It does
not need to be provided with the proposal form:
For ALL formats we need to know: who is responsible for the content (authors,
photographers, organizations etc.), the date (or approximate date) it was produced, the
publisher (if relevant), and copyright holder information. For all other formats besides
text, we also need some key terms about the content—who is in the photos, where the
photo was taken, who is speaking in an audio recording, etc. We need the “who, what
when, where and why” of each item, so be prepared to include as much information as
possible. If the proposal is accepted, a spreadsheet with this info will need to be provided
for each item being digitized, or it can be provided via some other arrangement with the
Digital Projects Librarian.
7. Funding source: It should be assumed that all projects will require funding. Small inhouse projects might be done without funds, but most projects have to be outsourced to a
vendor. Please indicate how much funding you have available, and whether it is coming
from your budget, or if you have a grant that will cover costs. Please call or e-mail the
Digital Projects Librarian for assistance in determining how much funding you will need
(contact info provided below).
8. Additional notes about the project: This is an optional field, but feel free to include any
questions, any additional contacts for the project, and/or any other information that you
feel is relevant to the consideration of your project.
Submit this completed form via e-mail or Interoffice Mail to:
Brigid Burke
Technical Services and Digital Projects Librarian
bburke@fdu.edu
Mail code : M-LA0-03 (Library, Florham campus)
Phone extension: 8514
THE DIGITAL PROJECTS COMMITTEE HAS THE RIGHT TO REJECT PROJECTS THAT
VIOLATE COPYRIGHT, OR THAT DO NOT MEET THE CRITERIA OUTLINED IN THE
POLICY ABOVE.
Digital Project Committee Members
Brigid Burke: Technical Services and Digital Projects Librarian
Maria Kocylowsky: Director of Business Reference Library and NJ Heritage Center
Richard Goerner: University Archivist
Eleanor Friedl: Reference Librarian and Florham Library Archivist