Here is Tip Sheet.

LSTA Digitization Grants
Tip Sheet

Use of this tip sheet will assist applicants in sufficiently addressing all the components necessary to write a competitive LSTA digital grant proposal. A competitive LSTA digitization grant project must address the following areas in the proposal: Audience, Technical Plan, Metadata Plan, and Training. There are additional issues that should be addressed in collaborative projects. Specific items to be covered in these four areas are:
1. General Description (Needs, Audience)

As in all LSTA projects, the evaluation component is critical – a good evaluation will indicate in what way this project will make a difference to end–users. It is strongly recommended that projects conduct user evaluations. Creating a small sample of the eventual project is an excellent way to work through issues and discover problems. Organizations are encouraged to do a small sample of the entire project and report any findings in their progress reports. Questions to be answered include:

* Who is the current audience for the material?
* Who is the projected future audience for the materials?
* What is the need for this project?
o Why should the material be digitized?
o Why is greater access to this material needed?
o What selection criteria will be employed?

2. Technical Plan

This portion of the grant should include substantial information on scanning and quality control standards. The agency(ies) should also document their understanding that digitization is an access tool and not necessarily a preservation strategy. Nonetheless, since digitization does have a preservation component, that component should be addressed. The application should also include a preservation plan for the materials being digitized and some sense of how the electronic files will be preserved into the future.

Specific information to be included in this section of the proposal (most likely the technical plan):

* Will this material be shared online (rather than only available in–house)? If not, why not?
* What scanning standards will be used, including elements such as gray scale or bi–tonal and image resolution?
* What image format will be used, including a rationale for the use of proprietary formats?
* What hardware and software will be used?
* A discussion of the backup and storage strategy
* A discussion of the migration strategy for long term preservation of digital resources
* A plan for the preservation of the original material being digitized
* Digital rights issues including copyright
* Describe any difficulties that might arise in scanning the materials
o Are the items bound or oversize?
o Are the materials fragile – i.e. will it be inappropriate to use sheet feed scanners?
* Will the digitization be done in house or will it be sub–contracted?
o If sub–contracted, how will the contractor be selected?
* If the digitization is done in–house include some documentation of the technical infrastructure necessary to support digital projects – i.e. networks, staff expertise, so forth.
* There are many issues that will need to be addressed during the course of the project, which may not be known at the outset. The proposals should include an awareness of the following issues:
o How will users search for selected images?
o How will the images be searched (what software)?
o How will the search results be displayed and/or sorted?
o How will images be linked and displayed?

3. Metadata Plan:

This portion of the project plan should include a sense of what information will be captured:

* What metadata standards will be used and why?
o What information will be captured about the original documents?
* How will descriptive metadata be used in searching for images?
* How will the metadata index terms be selected and why?
* How will metadata be consistently applied throughout the project – i.e. authority files?
* How is metadata application incorporated in the plan of work?
* What administrative metadata will be captured in the project, i.e. resolution, file size, capture device, etc.?

4. Management Plan (Training):

This section is often the weakest point of LSTA digitization grant proposals. LSTA grants can fund training necessary for project personnel. Competitive proposals will illustrate that staff associated with the project have the knowledge and capabilities to complete the project. Specifically, what expertise is already on staff and/or what training is available or must be developed for project participants or staff in the following areas:

* Project management
* Metadata
* Scanning software and equipment
* Website development

Collaborative projects should also address:

* Project vision and relationship to the various partner organizations
* Communication methods to be used among partners
* Decision making structure among the organizations
* Interoperability for the inclusion of various meta data

For more detailed information on what to include in a digitization proposal please see the following websites:

* Ohio Memory Project – http://www.ohiomemory.org/
* Institute of Museum and Library Services, A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections – http://www.imls.gov/pubs/forumframework.htm