The Library of Congress has made a major award to the American Society of Media Photographers to fund a project to promote digital photo standards, refined production workflows, archiving methods and best practices. “The Library is pleased to be able to bring together creators of such diverse content for the sake of saving our nation’s heritage, which is increasingly being created only in digital formats.” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

ASMP Press Release

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has received a major award to fund a new, collaborative project to promote digital photo standards, refined production workflows, archiving methods and best practices, all based on the Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG). The three-year project will develop new educational resources and will promote the use of the Guidelines through a Web site and awareness campaigns within the professional photographer community. The award is made by the Library of Congress as part of the Library’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).

The ASMP Foundation, a separate tax-deductible entity that supports ASMP’s educational mission, announced that it will contribute toward the matching funds target that was proposed to the LOC during the project application process. Also contributing toward the matching funds target is Photo District News. Additional matching funds are being sought. For more information, contact Eugene Mopsik, Executive Director of ASMP, at (215) 451-2767 or

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The ASMP project is one of eight partnership projects that the LOC is supporting as part of its new Preserving Creative America initiative to address the long-term preservation of creative content in digital form. The other seven are:

* Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS): digital preservation of motion pictures.
* ARTstor: training and tools for creation of “archive-ready” images.
* BMS/Chace: standardized metadata for sound recordings.
* Stock Artists Alliance (SAA): preserving metadata throughout the stock distribution chain.
* Universal Press Syndicate: processes for transferring digital content to the Library of Congress. (The tests will use Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” comic strips and Pat Oliphant’s editorial cartoons.)
* UCLA Film & Television Archive: long-term sustainability issues for independent movie-makers.
* University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction.

“America’s creativity is unrivaled in the world, and it is among our most important exports,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.  “The Library is pleased to be able to bring together creators of such diverse content for the sake of saving our nation’s heritage, which is increasingly being created only in digital formats.”

With these latest additions, the NDIIPP network now includes more than 90 partners, including other government agencies, educational institutions, research laboratories and organizations both in the United States and abroad.  Previous NDIIPP projects have involved primarily educational and cultural heritage institutions. To learn more about the NDIIPP initiative, visit www.digitalpreservation.gov.

About ASMP
Founded in 1944, the American Society of Media Photographers is the leading trade association for photographers who photograph primarily for publication. ASMP promotes photographers’ rights, educates photographers in better business practices, produces business publications for photographers, and helps buyers find professional photographers. It has more than 5,500 members, including many of the world’s greatest photographers, in 39 chapters nationwide.

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