As of July 1, 2024, there’s been a huge change in US government recordkeeping. All documents and materials submitted to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or the Library of Congress (LOC) must meet Federal Agency Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) guidelines. These guidelines also ensure compliance with federal mandates M-19-21 and M-23-07.

If you routinely submit documents to these government bodies, then you’re likely already in compliance. But if you’re new to these kinds of submissions, or perhaps new a recordkeeping position, you will have to ensure that all of your submitted digital files comply with these guidelines.

We’ll cover the basics below.

What is FADGI Compliance?

FADGI is a government effort to move entirely to digital record keeping. As government records need to last forever, the movement specifically focuses on quality guidelines that need to be met when submitting media, documents, pictures, movies, etc.

And this doesn’t just mean a high-quality record in terms of clarity. These guidelines also include formats, required meta data, color management, and tools used to capture or evaluate data.

FADGI is technical, expansive, and covers a lot of data! For the sake of simplicity, we will only be covering digitized electronic images (e.g. scanned paper, maps, etc.) in this post. So just a few things of note:

• Guidelines for audio/visual content can be found here.
• Documents that are created digitally (in word processors, LOB applications, and other software) still need to comply with FADGI guidelines.

Who Needs to Comply with FADGI?

Essentially, any organization that manages government projects. This includes federal agencies and companies that scan and/or store documents that will be sent to the National Archives or Library or Congress.

As digital transformation continues, it’s likely that more federal agencies will require FADGI compliance. Even if you don’t have to meet these guidelines now, it’s good to know them in case you need to submit documents to federal agencies in the future.

How Do Images Meet FADGI Compliance?

FADGI places an extreme importance on image quality and consistency of that quality. This image quality can be achieved by following best practices, using high quality software and hardware, and training staff.

Documents fall into two broad categories: Modern Textual Records (MTR) and heritage/cultural media.

Modern Textual Records (MTR)

MTR compliance covers documents created on modern office paper. These are documents that have a well-defined print type and moderate to high contrast between the ink of the text and the background on the paper.

Practically every typed document that you print out on your office printer should fall into this definition, and thus, MTR is what most organizations will be working with. Formats can be specialty TIFF, JPEG, PNG, or PDF/A.

Here are some of the technical guidelines for Modern Textual Records.

For full technical specifications, please see the FADGI guidelines.

Basic Takeaway: your images will need to be one of those four formats, at least 300 dpi, and in either color or grayscale.

Heritage and Cultural Media

Heritage and cultural media guidelines cover historical and antique documents. Because of the wide range of types and age of these records, the guidelines are a bit more complicated. For this, FADGI created a star system to grade image quality.

From the FADGI guidelines, the star system is:

One-Star imaging is appropriate for applications where the intent is to provide a reference to locate the original or when there is no ability to image to a higher star level.

Two-Star imaging is appropriate where there is no reasonable expectation of having the capability to achieve three-star conformance, or when three-star conformance is not needed for the intended use of the digital image. Two-star conformance is the minimally acceptable rating for most professional digitization activity.

Three-Star imaging is defined as producing a very good professional image that is appropriate for most uses.

Four-Star defines the best imaging practical today. Images created at the FADGI four-star level represent the current state of the art in image capture.

Again, since there is a wide range of types of historical and cultural documents, please refer to the FADGI guidelines for your specific needs. Bound materials, maps, film negatives, and more all have slightly different requirements!

Here is an example of the technical requirements when submitting digitized bound volumes of rare and special materials:

For full technical specifications, please see the FADGI guidelines.

Basic Takeaway: every type of media has a slightly different makeup of technical requirements, but all want 300 dpi and Three-Star imaging is required for submitting documents. In general, the required formats are TIFF, JPEG 2000, or PDF/A, but larger media (like maps) and photo-based media must be submitted in TIFF or JPEG.

Once again, refer to the FADGI guidelines for your specific media!

How Can I Ensure my Images are Meeting FADGI Compliance?

When it comes to digitizing your files, there are two options: scanning them yourself or outsourcing the project to a trusted partner.

Outsourcing

If you are currently outsourcing, contact your scanning partner and make sure that they are aware of the criteria for submissions. This should’ve been established during the beginning of the project, but it never hurts to quickly touch base and review.

If instead you are evaluating a scanning partner, bring up the guidelines and ensure the company has proper equipment and software to produce the images you require. Large scanning companies should know these guidelines. If you are working with a smaller or more niche company, ask for a sample of scanned pages and then test them for quality with automated tools. The FADGI guidelines specifically point out free-to-use tools like JHOVE and Jpylyzer for verifying your files.

In-House

If you are currently doing the scanning in-house, then refer to the linked tools above to test the quality of your images. Assuming that you’re already using leading production scanners and software, it’s incredibly likely that your images are already compliant with the guidelines. However, a quick test will ensure compliance.

To simplify FADGI compliance, leading scanning companies like Kodak Alaris and Canon sell FADGI compliant scanner bundles. These scanners come out of the box with everything your organization needs to scan your documents to meet the MTR guidelines. Some scanners are as simple as toggling on and off a FADGI mode so that you can switch between image quality seamlessly.

FADGI Compliance Next Steps

FADGI guidelines are not simple, but these are the next steps you should take after reading this blog post.

• Evaluate what media you must submit and note all the different types.
• Read the FADGI guidelines. Pay close attention to the process recommendations for each type of media. Again, audio and video media guidelines are here.
• If scanning in-house: review your current image output with free tools like JHOVE and Jpylyzer; make changes to processes, software, or hardware if necessary.
• If using a scanning partner: schedule a call to review process and quality.

The most important (and complicated) part of FADGI compliance is creating the right process for digitization. But once you have your hardware, software, and workflow in order, digitizing and submitting documents will become commonplace.

If at any point you need assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out to us here at Datamation. We have over 25 years of experience digitizing documents and submitting them to government agencies. Whether you want to build your FADGI compliant system in-house, or outsource it to a trusted partner, we’re here to help. Give us a call at (630) 321-0601 or contact us!