StacksVerified U.S. regulatory reference

36 CFR §1236.44

Verified against eCFR.gov as of June 20, 2026View official text on eCFR.gov ↗
Agencies must create digital documentation when digitizing permanent source records. The agency must retain this documentation alongside the digitized records until the digitized records have been transferred to NARA and NARA has notified the agency that the accessioning process is complete. The agency must dispose of the documentation in accordance with an appropriate General Records Schedule (GRS) or agency records schedule. The required documentation will help the agency populate the Transfer Request instrument (TR) in NARA's Electronic Records Archives (ERA). The following documents are required:
  1. (a)A defined project plan that identifies:
    1. (1)Record series or file units to be digitized;
    2. (2)Method that will be used to name digitized records;
    3. (3)Estimated date range of the source records;
    4. (4)Missing pages;
    5. (5)Gaps or missing records in the series. Depending on the type of gap or missing records, indicate if there will be charge-out cards for skipped or missing records that will be inter-filed if they are transferred at a later date;
    6. (6)Estimated volume, media types, dimensions, physical characteristics, and condition of the source records;
    7. (7)Equipment and software used to digitize records;
    8. (8)Estimated file storage requirements for the digitized records. The file storage needs may affect project decisions, such as compression and file format;
    9. (9)Any access or use restrictions that apply to the records;
    10. (10)Method used to capture the relationships that exist between source records once they are digitized; and
    11. (11)Any metadata element labels that differ from those specified in § 1236.54.
  2. (b)Any information needed to associate the digitized records to the source records' agency records schedule(s) including the item numbers;
  3. (c)Any related finding aids, indexes, inventories, logs, registers, or metadata schemas the agency uses to manage the records that can serve as sources for the metadata required in § 1236.54.
  4. (d)A quality management (QM) plan that ensures the project meets the quality assurance (QA) objectives and quality control (QC) inspection procedures.
    1. (1)The quality management plan must include the policies, functions, roles, responsibilities, requirements, and objectives for the project.
    2. (2)The quality assurance component of the QM plan must include documentation of:
      1. (i)Image quality performance parameters selected to capture the information present in the source records;
      2. (ii)Equipment and device acceptance testing methods and results;
      3. (iii)Design reviews to evaluate if digitization workflows meet the requirements; and
      4. (iv)Training conducted.
    3. (3)The quality control component of the QM plan must document:
      1. (i)The procedures used to inspect image quality;
      2. (ii)The procedures used to inspect metadata quality;
      3. (iii)The corrective actions taken to mitigate deviations throughout all phases of the project; and
      4. (iv)The procedures used to verify that digitized records conform to the requirements.