Background Papers and Technical Information

Documents directly related to activities at the Library of Congress

• Technical Operations Documentation
  
  1. NDL Requests for Proposals (complete documents)
     
     • RFP96-18 "Digital Images from Original Documents, Text Conversion and SGML-Encoding" (206 pp., printed version)
     • RFP96-5 "Conversion of Microfilm to Digital Images"
  
  
• American Memory pilot--seed of a universally available Library
  This article from the Periodic Report from the National Digital Library Program (November/December 1995) summarizes the five-year American Memory Pilot Project on which the National Digital Library Program builds.
• American Memory White Papers
  These technical papers were based on the experience gained during the American Memory Pilot Project. The concepts discussed and the principles developed still guide the Library's digital conversion efforts, although some of the details have changed as digitizing technology has improved and new digital formats have been widely deployed. An update of the first paper is in preparation.

  1. Digital Historical Collections: Types, Elements, and Construction (August 1996)
     First of three related papers for applicants in the LC/Ameritech competition
  2. Digital Formats for Content Reproductions (August 1996)
     Second of three related papers
  3. Access Aids and Interoperability (August 1996)
     Third of three related papers
  4. Frameworks and Finding Aids: Organizing Digital Archival Collections (October 1994)
     Paper presented by Carl Fleischhauer at the Seminar on Cataloging Digital Documents, co-sponsored by the University of Virginia Library and the Library of Congress.
  5. Reproduction Quality Issues in a Digital Library System (December 1992)

• Work in Progress: Selected Topics from the Internal Documentation for LC's National Digital Library Program
• NDLP Project Planning Checklist
• Historical Collections for the National Digital Library: Lessons and Challenges at the Library of Congress
  This two part article in the April and May 1996 issues of D-Lib magazine touches briefly on a wide range of issues associated with building a library of digitized historical collections.
• In association with historical collections, the Library of Congress is using two Document Type Definitions (DTDs) as applications of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language):

1. the American Memory DTD, for digitized historical documents
2. the new Encoded Archival Description DTD, for archival finding aids. The Library is an active participant in the EAD Finding Aid Pilot Project
   • Includes sample finding aids: Shirley Jackson Papers, NAACP Register of Visual Materials, and Federal Theatre Projection Collection

• Recommendations for the Evaluation of Digital Images Produced from Photographic, Micrographic, and Various Paper Formats-May 1996
  This report was prepared for the National Digital Library Program by the Image Permanence Institute.
• Final Report of the American Memory User Evaluation - December 1993
  This evaluation, carried out before American Memory collections were accessible over the World Wide Web, includes information on how primary source materials are used in schools and factors that are important to teachers.
• Proceedings of the Workshop on Electronic Texts - June 1992
  This workshop, held at the Library of Congress, brought together many of the pioneers in electronic text and document imaging in library or archives contexts. In part, the meeting highlighted the differences in motivation and approach between those who focussed on searchable text marked up with SGML and those concerned with imaging as a part of library preservation.

• Gaynor, Edward. "From MARC to Markup: SGML and Online Library Systems" in From Catalog to Gateway, Briefings from the CFFC, no. 7, 1996, a supplement to ALCTS Newsletter 7, 2: A-D (1996).
• Donovan, Kevin. "The Anatomy of an Imaging Project: A Primer for Museums, Libraries, Archives and other Visual Collections." Spectra (newsletter of the Museum Computer Network) 23, 2: 19-22 (Winter 1995/1996).