Message-Id: <mailto:199511071907.NAA02841@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 11:59:17 PST From: Kevin Donovan <mailto:kdonovan@SWCP.COM> Subject: High Resolution Scanning To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
Bruce: I believe it is far more useful to think of production level digitizing projects in terms of content, not pixels. Your institution has made a major investment in developing the image (photographic) and text (paper-based and automated) content that will be used to create a digital resource you wish to deliver by WWW and CD. By scanning at resolutions only sufficient for current applications (i.e., WWW or CD, which use relatively small image files) you will be creating a visual resource far inferior to your source (35mm, microfilm, 4x5, etc.). The result? Your institution will do the scanning all over again as technology changes. Don't calculate what you'll save by low-balling the project today, calculate the cost of doing it over again when new applications allow you to transmit larger image files...image files you will not have. Cost studies (see below) indicate that the cost of capture is not the most expensive part of the process. It's all the work before and after.At Luna Imaging we encourage clients to build Digital Image Collections of the highest quality (which is more than just the # of pixels) and consistency so that: 1.) The content you have captured matches the functional range of the photographic source. If you make the decision to capture visual content with 4x5 transparencies, create a digital surrogate of a 4x5 transparency. 2.) The consistency of the digital resource will assure predictable migration to new systems and platforms.
Also, consider how you are going to manage and deliver 3,000 digital images. How will you track the archive digital file and the multiple derivative (application-specific) digital files you will generate.
For applicable cost studies refer to: McClung. P.A. Costs Associated with Preservation Microfilming: Results of the Research Libraries Group Study. Library Resources and Technical Services. (October/December, 1986): 363-374.
For articles on the needs of digital imaging for scholarship: Ester, Michael. Digital Images in the Context of Visual Collections and Scholarship. Visual Resources 10,1(1994): 11-24.
For an entertaining executive summary for your director: Schmitt, Marilyn. The Siren Song of Cybermedia. Museum News. July/August (1994): 37-39.
For a nice little primer: Besser, Howard and Jennifer Trant. Introduction to Imaging. Santa Monica, CA: The Getty Art History Information Program, 1995. (Available from AHIP and on-line, sort of, at their WWW site).
For more: Contact the Commission on Preservation and Access, Maxine Sitts, Program Officer, at 202.939.3400. The CPA has published many excellent articles on digital imaging and the long-term issues (not which scanner!!!) involved in digital imaging projects.
And please feel free to contact me. (And take Jerry Schneider up on his offer of information.)
Best wishes,
Kevin ------------------------------------- Kevin Donovan Director of Special Projects Luna Imaging Inc. 1315 Innes Place Venice, CA 90291 ph: 310.452.8370 fx: 310.452.8389 E-mail: Kevin Donovan<mailto:donovan@luna-img.com> or kdonovan@swcp.com 11/07/95 11:59:17
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