Digital Initiatives: Services for Government

Consultation

Digital Initiatives will offer consultation (in-person or remote) on such issues as:

• Starting a digitization project, project planning, and workflow management
• Digitization standards and best practices
• Creation of metadata for description of and access to digital files
• Choosing the appropriate software and hardware to meet the needs of the project and collection
• Preservation, including appropriate standards for the long-term viability of digital file
• Copyright and evaluating copyright of materials for potential digitization
• Digital collection management, including file naming, organizing, and creating statements

Have additional questions that are not on this list? Uncertain about scanning or scanner settings? Feeling overwhelmed with your digital project? Digital Initiatives is here to help! Consulting can take place by email, over the phone, in-person (via a site visit), or virtual (via tools like Teams or Zoom). This service is available to all North Dakota state agencies. To get started, contact Digital Initiatives.

Digital Collections

The digital collections of the ND State Library are publicly accessible and searchable online on Digital Horizons. The collections contain thousands of items (photographs, documents, objects, etc.) relating to the history and culture of North Dakota and the Great Plains, as well as state government. The ND State Library supports open access to its digital collections and strives to allow users to access and search high-quality representations of the original items.

• If any state agencies are interested in partnering with the ND State Library to have their historic documents (reports, publications, etc.) digitized and made available online, contact Digital Initiatives. The ND State Library will  provide your agency with online hosting at no cost., and your digital content would become incorporated into the State Document Depository.

Digital Projects Toolkit

This toolkit covers the basics of cultural heritage digitization projects. Each of the sections includes practical tools, guidelines, examples, and resources for more in-depth learning. The toolkit includes sections on project planning, copyright, digitization, metadata, digital collection management, and storage and digital preservation.

Digitization

The ND State Library offers digitization services to other state agencies. If your agency has something that needs to be digitized, the ND State Library has scanners and equipment that can be utilized. The ND State Library adheres to recommended standards and formats to ensure high-quality digital files. Alternatively, the ND State Library can provide guidance to state agencies that would like to start a digitization project on their own.

• If any state agencies are interested in partnering with the ND State Library to have their historic documents (reports, publications, etc.) digitized and made available online, contact Digital Initiatives. The ND State Library will  provide your agency with online hosting at no cost., and your digital content would become incorporated into the State Document Depository.

Resources

Digital Initiatives provides resources on topics such as genealogy, hardware & software, oral histories, archiving & preservation, and much more!

ScanDay

• ScanDay

  • ScanDay is an event hosted with or in libraries (public, academic, school, special, etc.) across the state, in which Digital Initiatives staff from the ND State Library bring scanning and photography equipment to a community and digitize photographs, documents, objects, etc. from the collections of local institutions and private citizens. After digitization, the items are returned and each participant is given a flash drive containing digital copies of their items.

  • State employees are welcome to attend any local ScanDay.
• Virtual ScanDay
  • This is a spinoff program of ScanDay. It was started during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way for citizens and organizations to contribute copies of their items to the North Dakota Memories collection. It has since been made into an ongoing program/ service.
  • The only caveat (and this is the biggest difference from a traditional ScanDay) is that items must be digitized already. Digital Initiatives will not travel to a local library and scan the items for you. For example, items (like photographs) need to be in a digital format (like JPEG or TIFF) in order for them to be virtually submitted.
• ScanDay for State Employees
  • Digital Initiatives also offers a ScanDay specifically for state employees who want to contribute items from their personal collections to the digital collections of the ND State Library.
  • This is an ongoing service, instead of the typical one-and-done ScanDay event.
  • Items can be dropped off at the ND State Library, or items can be picked up.

Training

Digital Initiatives provides many different training opportunities. Some of these come directly from the North Dakota State Library, and others come from a variety of reputable sources. These trainings also come in different formats (such as webinars, workshops, tutorials, guides, presentations, etc.).