Digitizing Your Materials

Recommendations for File Formats
Loyola eCommons will accept any digital file format. However, the type of file format used may have consequences for future preservation and access. File formats that are open (i.e., non-proprietary), well-documented, widely-used, and that have the backing of a standards-endorsing organization are preferred.

If you have questions about how to work with digital file formats for your submission, please contact us.

The list below provides recommendations for commonly used file formats:

  • Articles, papers, and other text-based documents
    • Recommended: Adobe PDF (.pdf), plain text (.txt), XML (.xml), OpenDocument formats (.odt, .ott)
    • Acceptable: Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), iWork Pages (.pages), Rich Text Format (.rtf), HTML (.html)
  • Spreadsheets
    • Recommended: Comma-Separated Values (.csv), Text (tab-delimited) (.txt), XML (.xml), OpenDocument formats (.ods, .ots)
    • Acceptable: Microsoft Excel (.xls,.xlsx), iWork Numbers (.numbers)
  • Presentations
    • Recommended: Adobe PDF (.pdf), OpenDocument formats (.odp, .otp, .odg)
    • Acceptable: Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx), iWork Keynote (.key, .keynote)
  • Images
    • Recommended: TIFF (.tif), JPEG2000 (.jp2)
    • Acceptable: JPEG (.jpg), PNG (.png), GIF (.gif)
  • Audio
    • Recommended: BWF (.wav), WAV (.wav), AIFF (.aif), FLAC (.fla), Ogg Vorbis (.ogg)
    • Acceptable: MP3 (.mp3), MPEG-4 (.m4a), AAC (.aac), Real Audio (.ram), Windows Media Audio (.wma)
  • Video
    • Recommended: AVI (.avi), Motion JPEG 2000 (.mj2, .mjp2), MXF (.mxf), QuickTime (.mov)
    • Acceptable: MPEG-4 (.mp4), Adobe Flash (.flv), Windows Media Video (.wmv)

On-Demand Digital Conversion
Loyola eCommons will digitize printed or other non-digital resources for contributors so that they may be deposited in the repository. We can also convert older or obsolete files to a workable file format. In cases where in-house digitization or conversion is not possible or economically feasible, the library will work with contributors to find a solution that fits the needs of both the contributor and the repository.

If you have materials that you would like to deposit that are not currently in digital format, or are in a file format that you can no longer use, please contact us to make arrangements to have them converted and digitized. Be sure to include information about the nature of your materials and the amount of material in need of conversion.