Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for Community College Faculty
Workshops provide the opportunity for community college educators to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in American history at sites of historical or cultural significance.

Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers
Workshops provide the opportunity for K-12 teachers to engage in intensive study and discussion of important topics in American history at sites of historical or cultural significance.

Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers
Summer Seminars and Institutes for School Teachers provide K-12 educators with a means to deepen their understanding of important subjects in the humanities.

Summer Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers
Summer Seminars and Institutes for College and University Teachers allow college and university faculty to gain a deeper knowledge of current scholarship in key fields of the humanities and advance their own teaching and research.

Two working groups have been formed, one addressing content that can be captured in still images, the other involved with content categorizing sound, video, or motion-picture film. The initiative includes a just-launched Web site.

The Federal Agencies Still Image Digitization Working Group will focus its efforts on content such as books, manuscripts, maps, and photographic prints and negatives. Its members include the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Gallery of Art, the National Library of Medicine, the National Technical Information Service, the National Transportation Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Government Printing Office. An Advisory Board of technical experts from industry and academia will also contribute to the initiative.

The Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group, which will address standards and practices for sound, video, and motion picture film, includes the Defense Visual Information Directorate of the Department of Defense, the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Library of Medicine, the Smithsonian Institution, the Government Printing Office and the Voice of America.

The agencies began meeting in 2007 to identify common practices for digitizing cultural heritage materials in a sustainable way. Establishing guidelines is expected to increase the quality and consistency of digitized documents and media that are made available to the public, streamline workflows and reduce costs, promote the exchange of research, and encourage collaboration across agencies. The guidelines will also provide common benchmarks for digitization service providers and manufacturers.

This collaborative effort initially formed under the auspices of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), a Library of Congress-led program initiated by Congress in December 2000 to develop a national strategy to collect and preserve digital content. For more information on NDIIPP click here.