About Digital Collections

The University Libraries'  Digital Collections Department creates digital collections and makes them available

• to enhance scholarship and research;
• to increase access to its holdings;
• to support the teaching and learning activities of the University of South Carolina faculty and students; and
• to promote lifelong learning by the citizens of South Carolina and the public at large.

Through the use of appropriate technological standards, the University Libraries endeavor to preserve, encourage use of, and facilitate access to its digital collections.

If you have any comments or questions, please contact us at digital1@mailbox.sc.edu.

Kate Boyd, Digital Collections Librarian 
Elizabeth West (Chair), University Archivist, South Caroliniana Library
Tony Branch, Systems Department
Kathy Snediker, Reference Librarian
Brian Cuthrell, Manuscripts Division, South Caroliniana Library
Chris Hare, Maps Library
Heather Heckman, Moving Image Research Collections
Craig Keeney, Books Division, South Caroliniana Library
Jennifer Marshall, Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science
Douglas King, Special Materials Cataloger and Metadata Librarian
Jeffrey Makala, Rare Books and Special Collections
Bill Sudduth, Government Documents
Elizabeth Sudduth, Rare Books and Special Collections
Greg Wilsbacher, Moving Image Research Collections
Jennifer Wochner, Music Library

Libraries Policy for Provision of Images and Permissions for Image-Use

Faculty Guidelines for Suggesting a Digital Collections

1. Planning Guidelines
2. Scanning Guidlines
3. Selection Criteria
4. Metadata Guidelines

Please share your comments.

To practice sustainability and long-term retention of digital assets through an efficient selection processes and standardized digital preservation procedures.

Objectives

• Effectively choose collections to be digitized by properly following the Selection CriteriaGuidelines.
• Follow metadata and scanning best practices.
• Continuously review digital collections and software to determine retention needs.
• Work in close collaboration with Computer Services' backup and preservation plans for all of the university's electronic documents. We will take advantage of the fact that they will have documented their preservation and archival practices, which will be approved by the State Archives.
• In the future, adhere to established standards and open source practices, such as the Trusted Digital Repository Attributes and Responsibilities document and the (Open Archival Information System) OAIS Information Model supported by OCLC and Research Libraries Group.

USC Libraries Digital Preservation Policy

The Digital Activities Department will create and maintain archival masters of all digital formats. For master images, the uncompressed, open source TIFF format will be used. They will be scanned at the highest quality possible, but no less than 300 ppi. Preservation metadata will be added to the TIFF header at the time of the scan.

• All TIFFs and JPEGS will be copied onto DVDs, which will be kept in the office. TIFFs will also be sent over the network to the Tier 3 Hitachi SAN server housed at Computer Services (CS), where it will be maintained and periodically backedup to tape. The CONTENTdm database, including the metadata records and the access images (jpegs and jpeg2000s), is also backedup onto the SAN server. Every three years, the Digital Activities Team will review the digital collections to see if any should be discarded, migrated, or refreshed.
   
• In the future, the library would like to work with Computer Services to create a "trusted digital repository" and an open archival information system (OAIS) reference model, so that the digital materials of the library will never be lost. The library will also investigate the possibility of creating urns (uniform resource names) or purls (persistent uniform resource locators), which will insure that if any web sites change, web access to the digital objects will not be lost.

Scanning Inventory

Scanners

• 3 Epson Expression 10000XL PHOTO flatbed scanners with transparency adapters
• 1 Avision A3 Book Edge FB6080E scanner
• 1 Zeutschel Omniscan 14000 AO Overhead scanner

Computers

• 5 Dell Workstations with Pentium 4, 2gb RAM, and 500gb hard drive

Database

• CONTENTdm database 5.3 with OCR AABBY Fine Reader

Software

• Silverfast SE Scanning Software
• Perfect Book 3D scan technology
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Adobe Photoshop CS
• OmniPage Pro 14 OCR software

The Digital Collections Department is dedicated to the production, maintenance, delivery, and preservation of digital resources for scholars and students at the University of South Carolina, the citizens of South Carolina and the public at large. Through the use of appropriate technological standards, the University Libraries endeavor to increase access to its holdings in order to improve the teaching and research of the USC faculty, improve the learning and research of the USC Students, to promote lifelong learning by the citizens of South Carolina and the public at large, and to increase knowledge about the development and importance of digital collections.