Good digital projects are based on standards (where established) and best practices (where standards have not yet been established) or as an application of a standard in a workflow.
They are necessary for a number of reasons:
- The use of standards allows for interoperability with other data
- The consistent application of standards and best practices in digital projects enhances the efficient management of digital assets, making development more cost-effective, and improving access.
- There are uses to which scholars and students will put such resources in the future, that cannot be imagined now.
- With digital resources, means to track and access the resource are needed, thus requiring good metadata.
Adherence to standards (with respect to file format, metadata and other criteria) is also necessary for a digital project to be included in the digital collections. The purpose of establishing base criteria is both to increase functionality and assure a quality baseline in the materials in the Digital Collections, and to promote the use of these standards in all digital projects undertaken in the college community.
While standards and best practices are currently moving targets, there is broad consensus in the digital library community on standards for metadata and file formats. Adherence to these standards promotes re-use and re-purposing of digital objects, and the ability to exchange information across systems about digital resources.
