What are the FADGI scan requirements?
The Federal Agency Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) is a government effort to move away from paper records toward fully digital record keeping. The guidelines establish methods, practices, and quality standards to digitally organize all historical, archival, and cultural content within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for starters.
NARA and the OMB announced they are no longer accepting paper documents as of July 1, 2024. All materials sent to either NARA or the Library of Congress must now meet FADGI guidelines.
Many organizations are now faced with the challenge of complying with FADGI standards, and this mandate is likely to extend to all federal agencies and the organizations that submit digital records to them. Kodak Alaris serves many federal government agencies and is helping many organizations to update their digital workflows and systems for FADGI compliance.
Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials
-The Still Image Working Group-The Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Third Edition (linked below) were developed by the Still Image Working Group in 2022-2023. This document is an update of the 2016 Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of Raster Image Master Files.The latest revision of the guidelines expands on earlier works and incorporates new material reflecting the advances in imaging science and cultural heritage imaging best practice.
The Guidelines include shared best practices for still image materials (e.g., textual content, maps, and photographic prints and negatives) followed by agencies participating in the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI).These guidelines are intended to be used in conjunction with digital image conformance evaluation targets and software. Together, these guidelines and appropriate testing and monitoring systems provide the foundation for a FADGI-conforming digitization program.
Please see the Still Image Guidelines Resources page linked below for additional documentation and software resources.
Download the FADGI Technical Guidelines For Digitizing Cultural Materials Here
FADGI Ratings for Scanners
FADGI guidelines were updated in 2023 to make it easier for organizations to understand and produce FADGI-compliant records for permanent archiving. FADGI now outlines two categories, Modern Textual Records (MTR), and a separate set of guidelines for heritage and cultural media. The vast majority of FADGI submissions (about 95%) fall into the MTR category because the MTR guidelines are optimized for modern text-based documents.
MTR compliance covers printed documents including typed or laser-printed documents, books and journals, photographic prints, and other text documents created on modern office paper, with moderate to high contrast between the text and the paper background. MTR also includes support for grayscale records.
Heritage documents such as important antique records will use a four-star rating system that measures image quality as follows:
- One star: Meets minimal FADGI requirements but may have limitations or deficiencies in quality or accuracy. This is suitable for basic digitization tasks but not ideal for high-quality reproduction projects or OCR projects.
- Two star: Provides satisfactory FADGI compliance suitable for digitization projects but may not meet OCR standards.
- Three star: High-quality images that meet the most recommended requirements for color accuracy and preservation standards. It is ideal for demanding digitization projects and well-suited for OCR. The Modern Textual Records (MTR) standard is similar to this Three-Star rating but with reduced sampling frequency and tone response requirements. (Minimum requirements are to be scanned @ 300 dpi in uncompressed Tiff Group IV)
- Four star: Images suitable for almost any use from high-level image capture at 400 dpi.
(A Master Text Record must be scanned @ 400 dpi in uncompressed Tiff Group IV)
As of July, 2024, all organizations interacting with the Library of Congress and the National Archives administration must submit digital records that meet FADGI guidelines for their respective media types. These digital standards will likely extend to all federal agencies over time, so it’s critical that organizations that interact with US government agencies are prepared to meet these requirements.
FADGI Best Practices For Scanning:
For organizations submitting to agencies such as the Library of Congress and National Archives, FADGI also outlines the following best practices for still image capture:
- Do not apply pressure with a glass platen or use vacuum boards, high UV light sources, or automatic page turning devices unless approved by a paper conservator.
- For Master files, the image, document, or photograph must include the entire area of the page with a small white border.
- For Master files, the image, document, or photograph must not be retouched.
- For oversized material that has sections compiled into a single image, the separate images must be saved for archival purposes.
- For transparencies, tonal scale and color balance should match the original transparency.
- When scanning negatives, tonal orientation should be inverted to a positive.
Digital Imaging Conformance Evaluation (DICE)
OpenDICE software provides detailed information on the performance characteristics of scanned images. These targets are meant to measure and monitor a document's output image values to determine FADGI compliance. DICE testing and a monitoring system provide the foundation for a digitization program compliant with FADGI. Analysis software and DICE targets are necessary for FADGI conformance. You must submit the DICE report along with your images to NARA
OpenDICE is a fully functional program for the Windows operating system, created in MatLab. The analysis methodology and results obtained have been confirmed by Image Science Associates as consistent with the results obtained with DICE and Golden Thread. The results obtained with DICE, Golden Thread, and OpenDICE are only as valid as the input measurements from the targets used. Care should be taken to assure the targets are in good condition and have valid reference files.