Message-Id: <mailto:199511080531.XAA20798@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 11:33:45 -0500 From: Jon Reynolds <mailto:REYNOLDJ@GUNET.GEORGETOWN.EDU> Subject: Some thoughts on scanning (was justifying hirez...) To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
The telegraphic nature of email may make the following sound like an argument - not so!; merely presenting other things to think of.We have several scanning projects in mind that rise to the top of our pile occasionally. We haven't completed the planning on any of them, as yet, in part because we haven't been able to decide just how high is high resolution. We are still debating the point. We were interested in Photo-CD, but an acquaintance who runs a commercial gallery found their quality/consistency unacceptable. Admittedly, her standards were very high, and her income depended on very subtle color reproduction. We may settle for what we call reference quality, even though we would prefer to salt away a hi-rez version. For B&W, to us this means screen appearance roughly matching the detail available in a half page spread in a decent magazine. We decided to work backwards to the numbers since it was the viewer's eye-ball that really mattered in this context. It is looking like we will average about 110k in jpg format. This remains very, very preliminary. Our scanners are in a different dept.; when they buy us our own we will move ahead more vigorously.
But as to using student workers: I have been experimenting with the most recent generation of H-P scanners. I think they are model 3C - cost just under $1000. I find them close to automatic and thus student-proof for a reference quality scan. I am hoping to get ten scans per hour out of a student with a conscience, probably working 2 hour shifts. I will report on how it works out in practice when/if we get started. The difference between these scanners and our 2 year old basic Relisys is about the same as the difference between an XT and a 486 66.
As to outsourcing: if the items are unique, and important and we care, we go with it. A second copy of the student newspaper, would be let out for scanning or microfilming, of course, but if someone wants best possible reproduction of a unique important document or photograph, I go with it, unless the user can make do with a copy we make in house. When we reproduced the manuscript of Tom Sawyer, the Spec. Coll. librarian flew to Ann Arbor with the manuscript in his lap in a fire resistant portable strong box, prompting a great deal of black humor around this place. I keep an 1864 engraving of the college ruined by a printer to show to anyone who complains. (To many who make their living by copying, the copy is more important than the original.)
We keep an open mind. I agree outsourcing for scanning is the same as outsourcing for microfilming, but we would look very carefully at that as well.
Jon Reynolds