New Digitisation Specification

PROV has released the new PROS 25/02 S1 Digitisation Specification. 

NOTE: If you have a project or process already underway using the expired PROS 19/05 S1 Digitisation Specification, you do NOT need to apply requirements in the new PROS 25/02 S1 issued.

Key differences between expired & new Specification

Certificate of Compliance

PROV no longer requires public offices to prepare a Certificate of Compliance and send it in. Public offices should still prepare a Digitisation Plan - this can be a separate document or part of a larger Project Plan. If requested, the public office must send a copy of the Digitisation Plan to PROV. 

Quality Control

There is a greater focus on quality control, including monitoring the performance of digitisation service providers.

Minimum Information required in Digitisation Plan

There is more detail required in the Digitisation Plan. This reflects a greater focus on ensuring that the digitised records are a complete and accurate representation and will meet current and future needs.

Image requirements

Less technical detail has been included in the image requirements, as modern scanning equipment generally produces a good quality image. Instead, the focus is on ensuring that the digitised record will be readable and usable. 

The new Specification states that: 

• Text in digitised records needs to be as clearly readable as in the original source records
• The key content in non-text records (e.g. peoples' faces, the precise line of a fence boundary, words spoken in an audio recording) needs to be as unambiguous in the digitised copy as it is in the source.

The new Specification points to sources which suggest minimum settings for a wide range of formats.

For more information on requirements in the new Digitisation Plan, see the Comparison of Minimum Information Required in a Digitisation Plan.