Form Application Form 3 Application Form 3 Specifications for Projects that Develop Digital Project

Specifications for Projects that Develop Digital Products

Part I. Complete the appropriate section(s):
A. Converting Non-Digital Material to Digital Format

A1. Describe types and original formats of materials to be selected for digitization and quantity of each.
A2. Identify copyright issues and other potential restrictions with regard to the original non-digital material.
 Public domain:
% of total.
 Privacy concerns:
% of total. Plan to address:
 Permissions have been obtained:
 Permissions to be requested:
Plan to address:

% of total.
% of total.

 Other:

% of total. Explain:

A3. Describe how the newly digitized material will be made available to the public. Explain the terms of access and
conditions of use. Identify and explain any restrictions that will apply to digitized material and specify what percentage if
any of the total material will be subject to restrictions.
A4. List the equipment and software, with specifications, whether purchased, leased, or outsourced, that will be used (e.g.,
camera, scanner, server, A/D audio or video converter).

B. Repurposing Existing Digital Content

B1. Describe types and original formats of digital materials to be selected for repurposing and quantity of each.
B2. Identify copyright issues and other potential restrictions with regard to the original digital material.
 Public domain:
% of total.
 Privacy concerns:
% of total. Plan to address:
 Permissions have been obtained:
 Permissions to be requested:
Plan to address:

% of total.
% of total.

 Other:

% of total. Explain:

B3. Describe how the repurposed material will be made available to the public. Explain the terms of access and conditions
of use. Identify and explain any restrictions that will apply to repurposed material and specify what percentage if any of the
total material will be subject to restrictions.
B4. List the equipment and software, with specifications, whether purchased, leased, or outsourced, that will be used (e.g.,
MPEG encoder, non-linear editing system, GIS software).

C. Creating New Digital Content
C1. Describe types of materials to be created in digital form and quantity of each.
C2. Describe plan to obtain releases/permissions from project content creators and subjects.
C3. Describe disposition of ownership and use rights of new product. Describe how the new product will be made available
to the public. Explain the terms of access and conditions of use. Identify and explain any restrictions that will apply to new
content, and specify what percentage if any of the total material will be subject to restrictions.
C4. List the equipment and software, with specifications, whether purchased, leased or outsourced, that will be used (e.g.,
camera, audio recording equipment, video recording equipment, encoding software, server).

D. Creating New Software Applications, Information Systems, or other Technology Based Tools
D1. Describe type of application or system being created.
D2. List the programming languages, platforms, software, or other applications and their specifications being used.
D3. Describe disposition of ownership and use rights of new product. Describe how the new product will be made available
to the public. Explain the terms of access and conditions of use.
D4. Describe how the tool extends or interoperates with existing applications, if applicable.
D5. Describe the development documentation process and technical description of the final product.

Part II. Answer all questions:
1. Specify each type of file format (e.g., TIFF, JPEG, MPEG) to be produced and anticipated quality (e.g. minimum resolution,
depth, tone, pixel dimensions, file size, sampling rate) of each. If producing digital image files please list the each type of image
file produced (preservation maser, access copy, and thumbnail, if applicable).
Preservation Master:
Access:
Thumbnail:
2. Describe the delivery medium that will be used (e.g. Internet, broadcast, DVD).

3. Describe the underlying software used to manage and/or present digital content or hardware/software dependencies
required to run the application or technology tool.

4. Describe the quality control plan.

5. Explain how metadata (e.g. technical, descriptive, administrative, preservation,) will be produced and used to describe
and manage digital content. Include the standards that will be used for data structure, content (e.g. thesauri), protocols,
preservation and administrative information and communication of the content (e.g., MARC, EAD, Dublin Core, PBCore,
PREMIS,VRA Core Categories, or Categories for the Description of Works of Art).

6. Describe plans for preservation and maintenance of the digital files during and after the expiration of the grant period (i.e.,
storage systems, data standards, technical documentation, migration plans and commitment of institutional funding).
7. If content will be provided on the Internet, indicate agreement to submit collection level records for digital products to the
IMLS Digital Collections Registry. State reasons for selecting alternative approaches.
8. Provide URL(s) for applicant’s previous digital products, if applicable.

Part III. Developing Data Management Plans for Research Projects
IMLS encourages sharing of research data. The purpose of this section is to help IMLS
understand a grant applicant’s research practices and plans for management of data that would
be generated through a proposed research project. If the proposed project activities will generate
datasets with the potential for future re-use or repurposing, answer the following questions. If
there is not enough space on the form to provide complete answers to the questions, please
copy the questions to a separate document, answer them fully, and incorporate the document
(clearly named so as to be identifiable) into the supporting documentation portion of the
application.
1. Summarize the intended purpose of the research, the type of data to be collected or generated, the
approximate dates when the data will be generated or collected, and the anticipated volume of data.

2. Does the proposed research activity generating the dataset(s) require approval by any internal or
institutional review panel? If so, has the proposed research activity already been approved?

3. Describe any potential issues with the data regarding confidential or private information about
individuals, or proprietary information about organizations. What steps, if any, will be taken to protect
such information from being disclosed?

4. If additional documentation such as consent agreements or signed certifications will be collected
along with the data, describe plans for preserving the documentation and ensuring that its
relationship to the collected data is maintained.

5. How will you manage intellectual property interests in the dataset(s)? Who will claim ownership of the
intellectual property rights to the dataset(s)? How will those claims of ownership be communicated to
others?

6. Which technologies, instruments or tools will be used to collect or generate the data? Provide details
about hardware or software; electronic formats to be used for data capture or storage; standards or
local practices to be used for data content and encoding; controlled vocabularies or other
mechanisms that will be used for data normalization and consistency; and any other relevant
technical requirements or dependencies for understanding, retrieving, displaying or processing the
dataset(s). If the data will be encrypted at any point in its active or inactive life, explain the reasons
for choosing to encrypt the data and how the decryption key will be stored, protected, and made
available if necessary.

7. What metadata will be captured or created along with the dataset(s)? What metadata standards or
schema will be used to express the metadata? Where will the metadata be stored, and in what
format(s)? How will the metadata be permanently associated and managed with the dataset(s) it
describes?

8. During the research project, where will the data and metadata be stored, and on what type of media?
Who will have access to the data and/or copies of the data during the project? How many backup
copies will be maintained during the active project, and how frequently will the backup copies be
refreshed? Who will be responsible for data backup? Where will the backup copies of the data and
metadata be stored during the project?

9. Once the research project is completed, what is the long-term plan for archiving, managing, and
making the metadata and dataset(s) available (if applicable)? What steps will you take to prepare the
data for sharing (e.g., labeling missing data, standardizing formats, etc.)?

10. Will the dataset(s) and metadata be deposited in an institutional repository or a research community’s
digital repository? If so, why was this repository selected? Does this repository enforce any access
restrictions? When the dataset(s) is deposited, will it be subject to any access embargo period, and if
so for how long? Does this repository already manage other research datasets and metadata similar
in attributes such as size and format? What preservation and backup procedures are used by this
repository? Will the dataset(s) and metadata be maintained in this repository for a predetermined or
indefinite period? Who will perform the deposit, including creating additional metadata that may be
necessary at the time of deposit? If you do not intend to deposit the dataset and metadata into a
repository, but do intend to share the data, what is your sharing strategy?

11. When and how frequently will this data management plan and its implementation be reviewed?