Standards and Digitisation Policy

The primary goal of digitisation in ITMA is to preserve materials and, where possible, make them accessible to the public. Sound recordings, texts, and still and moving images are all candidates for digitisation, with more vulnerable media given priority. Digitisation is carried out in-house and using approved service providers.
At ITMA, we adhere to international standards and best practice set by the international archiving community in creating and describing digital objects.
Of special note: the sound recordings in the Dusty Bluebells Collection are being managed as part of a new digital preservation and access strategy developed with funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Listed below are the current preferred digital preservation and access file format standards for multimedia materials in ITMA
Sound
Preservation: BWF WAV — Sample Rate: 96kHz — Bit Depth: 24 bit
User Access: MP3
Texts and Manuscripts
Preservation: TIFF and/or PDF/A 300 DPI
User Access: JPEG 300 DPI and/or PDF/A
Images
Preservation: TIFF 300 DPI
User Access: JPEG 300 DPI