About This Initiative

Started in 2007, this is a collaborative effort by federal agencies to define common guidelines, methods, and practices for digitizing historical content.   As part of this, two working groups are studying issues specific to two major areas, Still Image and Audio Visual.

Learn more about the initiative

• File Format Comparison Projects
  Posted by both Working Groups  | December 2, 2014
  

  Comparisons of file formats for still-image reformatting, video reformatting, and preservation-oriented treatment of born digital video.  For the reformatting examples, matrixes are used to compare formats in terms of about forty factors.  For born digital  video, current practices in six federal agencies are described in case histories.  The offerings include narrative explanatory documents and supplementary reports.

• MXF Application Specification for Moving Image and other Audio-Visual Content
  Review draft for comment | Comments requested by November 10, 2014
  

  The MXF Application Specification for Archiving and Preservation is a detailed specification for a file "wrapper" intended to serve reformatting programs in which an archive is making a digital-file copy of a videotape or motion picture film, as well as to serve as a container for born-digital content when the native encoded essence is judged suitable for retention for at least the medium term.

• Audio Analog-to-Digital Converter Performance
  Approved by Working Group  | August 20, 2012
  

  This guideline concerns metrics and measurement methods for analog-to-digital converters. Future performance-related documents will discuss the problem of interstitial errors, i.e., accidental loss or transformations of audio samples within the digitizing system before the data stream is written to file.

• Embedding Metadata in Broadcast WAVE Files
  Approved by Working Group | April 23, 2012
  

  Version 2 of the guideline for metadata to be embedded in Broadcast WAVE files that reproduce historical and cultural heritage digital sound recordings.

• Technical Guidelines for the Still Image Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials
  Updated by Working Group | August 24, 2010
  

  Creation of Raster Image Master Files represents shared best practices followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Still Image Working Group for digitizing cultural heritage material.

All digitization guidelines

News & Events

• Review drafts for MXF Application Specification AS-07 including Baseband Shim posted at AMWA website; comments requested by November 10, 2014.
• FADGI welcomes Tom Rieger as the new coordinator for the Still Image Working Group.
• File format comparisons: still image formats, formats for reformatted video and born digital video exploration
  Documents posted September 9, 2014

Recent blogs:

• Let’s Start at the Very Beginning: Guiding Principles for Creating Born Digital Video (LC, February 2014)
• AV Artifact Atlas: By the People, For the People (LC, January 2014)
• Can I Get a Sample of That? Digital File Format Samples and Test Sets (LC, December 2013)
• On the Road with FADGI: Recent Conference Presentations Highlight Current Audio and Video Projects (LC, November 2013)
• Connecting Communities: FADGI Still Image Working Group’s Impact on the Library of Congress and Beyond (LC, November 2013)
• One Format Does Not Fit All: FADGI Audio-Visual Working Group’s Diverse Approaches to Format Guidance (LC, October 2013)

See all News & Events

Resources

The following are provided as resources for the digitization of both audio-visual and still image digital content.

• JPEG 2000 Lossy Compression (PDF, 1.6 MB)
• Digital Imaging Standards
• Evaluating Still Image Digitization and Digitization Equipment (PDF, 2.5 MB)
• “Format Considerations in Audio Visual Preservation Reformatting” (PDF, 528 KB)

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