Scanning Criteria 1997
The Criteria • 1997
The Warren Memorial Library serves a community of 16,500 people in Westbrook with additional service to neighboring communities such as Portland, Windham, Gorham, Standish, South Portland and Scarborough. Most residents in Westbrook have or had relatives who worked for S. D. Warren Paper Mill or they themselves work at the mill. Because the older photographs were in varying stages of deterioration, removing them from their envelopes was a cause for concern. A decision was made to scan these historical photographs and place them on the web.
At that time, we wanted to create a digital copy of these 65 images in sufficient quality that they could be used for ready reference in lieu of casual browsing through the original sources. Although preservation goals could be met by this, we also were aware that because of limited storage space, large format/high quality images could not be produced. We settled for low resolution that was compatible with website sharing. This also allowed images to upload quickly on our web page thus saving time. Because the files were between 2.5 to 3.5 MB, we were able to store all 65 images in three 100 meg zip disks, which were available in 1997. 250 meg zip disk were made available a year later. We also kept copies of the scanned images on computer hard drive. Re-writable CD-ROM and DVD-ROM were not made available until a few years later.
SCANNING THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Hardware & Software • 1997
Although a variety of operating systems and platforms exist that can do digital work, I find the Macintosh computer more suited for this type of work. In 1995, The Gardner Group, a national consulting firm that provides services to corporate America and larger educational institutions, released an independent study that concluded the Macintosh was at 25% cheaper to support than the Windows platform. It’s operating system, exclusively owned by Apple, is equipped as a multimedia machine with sound input/output and sophisticated graphic features. Because its operating architecture is different from PC’s, it is also faster. Translated that means just about any Macintosh can do the type of digital work I am discussing here.
We used a PowerComputing’s PowerCenter Pro 180 Mhz Mac OS 8.6 with 1.2 GB hard drive and internal 100 meg zip drive. The scanner was an HP ScanJet IICX flat bed scanner, and the software used for scanning was Deskscan II. The image is placed in Photoshop for touch-up.
CONSTRUCTING THE S.D. WARREN DIGITAL PROJECT WEB SITE
The S. D. Warren Photographic Collection
http://users.rcn.com/warren.javanet/SDWarrenPhoto.html (closed in 2005)
http://sdwarrenpapermilll.weebly.com/ (opened in 2015)
Out of the 200 photographs, 52 were chosen to be digitized and placed on our site. This website was designed using Adobe PageMill 2.0.
We knew that this site would evolve over time so it was considered a "work in progress." Being new to the idea of digitizing images and placing them on the web, we anticipated changes based on patron feedback. This would allow us to update links and work on style and design. What was important is deciding what we would include on the site. We wanted to include same information we had on our catalog record on the site. That meant including title, format, photographer, date, description, photo/item number.
We included a brief biographical sketch of S.D. Warren and had links to our Copyright and Fair Use policies.
The Warren Memorial Library serves a community of 16,500 people in Westbrook with additional service to neighboring communities such as Portland, Windham, Gorham, Standish, South Portland and Scarborough. Most residents in Westbrook have or had relatives who worked for S. D. Warren Paper Mill or they themselves work at the mill. Because the older photographs were in varying stages of deterioration, removing them from their envelopes was a cause for concern. A decision was made to scan these historical photographs and place them on the web.
At that time, we wanted to create a digital copy of these 65 images in sufficient quality that they could be used for ready reference in lieu of casual browsing through the original sources. Although preservation goals could be met by this, we also were aware that because of limited storage space, large format/high quality images could not be produced. We settled for low resolution that was compatible with website sharing. This also allowed images to upload quickly on our web page thus saving time. Because the files were between 2.5 to 3.5 MB, we were able to store all 65 images in three 100 meg zip disks, which were available in 1997. 250 meg zip disk were made available a year later. We also kept copies of the scanned images on computer hard drive. Re-writable CD-ROM and DVD-ROM were not made available until a few years later.
SCANNING THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Hardware & Software • 1997
Although a variety of operating systems and platforms exist that can do digital work, I find the Macintosh computer more suited for this type of work. In 1995, The Gardner Group, a national consulting firm that provides services to corporate America and larger educational institutions, released an independent study that concluded the Macintosh was at 25% cheaper to support than the Windows platform. It’s operating system, exclusively owned by Apple, is equipped as a multimedia machine with sound input/output and sophisticated graphic features. Because its operating architecture is different from PC’s, it is also faster. Translated that means just about any Macintosh can do the type of digital work I am discussing here.
We used a PowerComputing’s PowerCenter Pro 180 Mhz Mac OS 8.6 with 1.2 GB hard drive and internal 100 meg zip drive. The scanner was an HP ScanJet IICX flat bed scanner, and the software used for scanning was Deskscan II. The image is placed in Photoshop for touch-up.
CONSTRUCTING THE S.D. WARREN DIGITAL PROJECT WEB SITE
The S. D. Warren Photographic Collection
http://users.rcn.com/warren.javanet/SDWarrenPhoto.html (closed in 2005)
http://sdwarrenpapermilll.weebly.com/ (opened in 2015)
Out of the 200 photographs, 52 were chosen to be digitized and placed on our site. This website was designed using Adobe PageMill 2.0.
We knew that this site would evolve over time so it was considered a "work in progress." Being new to the idea of digitizing images and placing them on the web, we anticipated changes based on patron feedback. This would allow us to update links and work on style and design. What was important is deciding what we would include on the site. We wanted to include same information we had on our catalog record on the site. That meant including title, format, photographer, date, description, photo/item number.
We included a brief biographical sketch of S.D. Warren and had links to our Copyright and Fair Use policies.
Each link brought the viewer to a site with photographs of that particular category. Included information:
- Title
- Date
- Item Number
- Photographer
- Size
- Process
- Mounting Data
- Description