Benchmarks and checks of storage and controls for digital images

Benchmarks and checks of storage and controls for digital images

Your organisation should establish benchmarks for where and how digital images are stored, how they are captured, and the reliability of storage. Decisions about capturing and storing images should be made early in the digitisation project, based on the records' purpose and type.

Examples include:

• Highly sensitive records must be stored with strict security and access controls.
• Business records that need to serve as evidence should be captured in recordkeeping systems or stored in environments with audit trails, access controls, and security measures.

Staff procedures should clearly outline the correct methods for storing images and applying controls.

Quality assurance checks should verify:

• digital images being captured appropriately in the chosen systems
• storage methods are reliable and protect the images
• any deviations from procedures are corrected.

Storage methods should be tested to confirm they are robust. Digital images must also be monitored and managed as part of your organisation’s overall records management strategy, including planning for long-term retention and migration.

Get more information on managing digital images as records.

Documentation

Benchmarks and quality assurance measures for a back-capture digitisation project must be clearly defined and agreed upon by all stakeholders. Procedures should document:

• roles and responsibilities
• methods for ensuring benchmarks are met
• the type, extent, and frequency of quality assurance checks
• when re-digitisation is required.

These procedures should be approved by senior management and communicated to staff and stakeholders. When outsourcing digitisation, ensure service providers understand and adhere to the documented benchmarks.

Quality assurance data, such as logs, reports, and decisions, should be captured in your organisation’s recordkeeping system. 

This data becomes part of an image's metadata, supporting its authenticity and aiding future preservation decisions.