29-255-3 Me. Code R. § 10

Current through 2024-51, December 18, 2024

Section 255-3-10 - QUALITY ASSURANCE

A. Quality assurance procedures must be in place to ensure the creation of accurate and authentic images and accurate metadata (index terms) that follow these guidelines, as well as ensuring that the specific requirements of the state agency are met. Quality assurance must be conducted before the destruction of any original documents. Each image of every page of all digitized documents must be visually inspected, not verified by a machine, to ensure clarity, readability, and accurate representation of the original record. Similarly, each indexing field must be checked against the original or imaged record.

B. If producing access copies and/or thumbnails of the images, conduct quality assurance for these as well.

C. Digitizing must capture each digital image with the same level of clarity as each document page so that every legible line and character on the original document appears and is legible in the image.

A person or persons other than those digitizing or indexing a particular record must perform the final quality control procedures outlined within this document. In most situations, quality assurance is performed in a two-step process: the scanner or digital camera operator will perform an initial quality check during the imaging process, and then a different individual will perform a second review in a separate process. If a vendor is conducting the imaging, either the government agency using the services of a vendor or a third party must conduct the quality assurance.

The quality control process must be documented and maintained throughout the digitization conversion process. Information to document includes problem resolution procedures and reporting requirements for each step of a conversion project.

Quality control steps for digitized images must verify the following items:

Correct image file naming convention, as agreed upon Correct file format (including verification of compliance with the PDF/A format for purported PDF/A files) Quality of image is the same as in the original Correct size and resolution Image digitized at appropriate ppi for each image type Proper reading orientation (landscape or portrait) Image is not skewed Image is neither too light nor too dark Curvature of the page does not obscure or distort the text Appropriate contrast within the image No distortion of the image No extraneous materials (attachednotes, fasteners, etc.) obscure the image No additional information added to the image that is not part of the original document Appropriate indexing terms associated with the digitized image Appropriate indexing terms associated with the digitized image

For acceptable correction of digitized images refer to FADGI Guidelines.

D. Upon inspection, any image deemed of unacceptable quality must be redigitized followed by a re-inspection of the new image.

E.Index Accuracy: The index data, not including OCR'd text used to search against, must be verified with the goal of achieving 100% accuracy. Acceptable methods include verification of data by another individual other than the person performing the initial data entry; dual data entry where two operators independently index the same document and the results are compared to find any discrepancies (this is also known as double-blind indexing); or any other means as appropriate to ensure 100% index accuracy.

29-255 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 10