Library of Congress Issues RFP For Newspaper Conversion/Digitization Pilot Project

The Request for Proposal (RFP) discussed below was released on March 16, 2017.
From the Solicitation Web Page:

The Library has selected contemporary foreign newspapers, ranging from the 1980s to present, for a digitization pilot project to demonstrate converting newspapers directly from the paper originals using JPEG2000 specifications developed in 2016.
The pilot will consist of a sample set of approximately fifty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand (50,000 – 120,000) pages, drawing materials from several curatorial divisions.
All of these materials (100%) are published outside of the United States. Most of them (approximately 90%) are in foreign languages and could be in any script, including Arabic, Asian, and Cyrillic language scripts.
Many volumes or issues may be brittle or deteriorated, with physical damage, such as torn pages. Some materials may be recently produced or published. Most of these materials (approximately 98%) are not camera ready and require full collation and targeting.
Digital conversion will take place at Library of Congress facilities. The Library will provide adequate space and infrastructure for the required equipment and operator. Volumes will be scanned at opening angles of 180 degrees. Depending on the nature of the material, scanning will be done under or on top of glass, or via sheet-feed equipment. The Contractor shall perform the conversion with staff experienced in this area of digital conversion. Digitization requirements are driven by the most current version of the information capture specifications (sampling rate, tone/amplitude resolution, encoding, etc.), quality guidelines, and content categories and digitization objectives recommended by the Still Image Group of the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (“FADGI”).

Read the Complete Web Document and Files
Direct to Statement of Work Document (29 pages; .doc)

Filed under: Digital Preservation, Journal Articles, Libraries, News