Meghan’s Tales: Learning About Photo Formatting

Connecting Photo Formatting to Everyday Preservation

Applying Internship Lessons

Now that Meghan has begun to understand the different methods of digitizing images for preservation, it is important to learn about the different formatting options when digitizing photos. Also, understanding these concepts will help Meghan with her research on connecting local communities and digital preservation.

What is Image Resolution?

The quality of a digital image often plays a role when deciding how or why to preserve a photograph. Meghan has started learning about image resolution so that she can apply these technical lessons to the preservation of historic artifacts. The Federal Agency Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) recommends that images should be scanned with a 300-600 DPI (dots per inch) resolution for the best quality. Interestingly, the size of the original photograph can change this setting. The smaller the image, the higher the resolution should be; ensuring the versatility of the digital image.

What is Image Compression?

When an image is saved as a digital file, it is processed with a level of compression. This basically refers to the file size when digitized. For the highest quality image, there should be little to no compression. However, file compression is not a bad thing. It can often be helpful in preventing files from becoming too large. Measuring the acceptable amount of compression with the level of resolution can often be a tricky process.

Stay tuned for future blog posts about compression and how it affects preservation...

Formatting and Preservation

So how does resolution and compression affect the everyday community and their preservation efforts? Well, as Meghan has learned, the size and quality of an image shapes the way that the image is digitized. These dynamics also effect the ease and ability of scanning and storing pictures. As Meghan continues to research digital preservation, these lessons will be incorporated into her final project on how to bring communities together to digitally preserve photos, artifacts and other treasured documents.

What Meghan Learned Today

Storing valuable family photos in glass frames or photo albums may look nice, but glass or adhesive paper can be damaging to the photograph over time. Often, moisture can build-up between the glass and the image, deteriorating the photo by causing it to bind to the glass. When removing a picture that has stuck to glass, solutions such as Kodak's Photo Flo can be used to separate the photo from the glass without destroying or breaking the image.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Meghan, the Aspiring Digital Preservationist (DP), is a graduate student at UCF, majoring in Public History. She is currently participating in an internship with E-Z Photo Scan, learning about Digital Preservation.

Meghan’s Tales: Understanding the Methods of Digitizing Photos for Preservation

Exploring the purpose of preservation and the world of formatting Images.

Embarking Upon This Internship 

Meghan, the Aspiring DP, has begun investigating the different methods and approaches to digital preservation. She will use these lessons about digitization to better understand how the History Harvest and RICHES Mosaic Interface connects photos, historic artifacts, and treasured documents to the digital world. These principals can then be applied toward creating a broad initiative of connecting local communities with digital preservation; another aspect of Meghan’s internship.

Why Digitize?

Rather than allowing old photos, documents and other artifacts to deteriorate over time,  there are a few basic reasons why people digitize photos and other documents. First, many seek to digitize photos to keep them for their own personal storage as a keepsake. Second, photos can be digitized to protect, preserve or restore them for long-term use. Third, people often share photos and documents, and digitization offers the ability to make changes to the image or send them online. Fourth, digitized photos can connect people with ideas and information.

TIFF and JPEG Files

One of the key discussions in the field of digital preservation is the manner of collecting digital images through photo scanning. When saving a file during the digitization process, many users make a choice between saving the file as a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) or a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format. Although both formats offer similar benefits in image quality, each pose their own unique challenges. Issues that arise when determining which file format to use are the size of the file, the level of resolution (image quality), and levels of compression (the reduction of file size).

Understanding the differences, benefits and concerns of these two file formats can assist users in creating an image that has a good quality and is effective for their personal needs.

Stay tuned as Meghan learns more about these files and the ways they contribute to digital preservation…

What Meghan Learned Today

According to Susan Sontag, in her book, On Photography, "From its start, photography implied the capture of the largest possible number of subjects [...] to democratize all experiences by translating them into images." 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Meghan, the Aspiring Digital Preservationist (DP), is a graduate student at UCF, majoring in Public History. She is currently participating in an internship with E-Z Photo Scan, learning about Digital Preservation.

Meghan’s Tales: Connecting Photos, Artifacts & Treasured Documents to the Digital World

The Riches Mosaic Interface, from UCF is digitizing local artifacts, photos & treasured documents with partners around the globe.

Why I Am Here 

One aspect of this internship is learning how communities, including public and private institutions, individuals and groups, etc., can begin preserving documents and artifacts in a digital manner. Digitizing photographs, documents and other important historical artifacts not only ensures long-term preservation, but it also creates the possibility for a wide audience to learn from previously undiscovered history.

Digitization and RICHES

The concept of preservation is one of the foundations of the History Harvest initiative across the country. These events make an impact toward the study of local history by the ways that the newly digitized artifacts reach the broader community. At the University of Central Florida, the history department has created the Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences and Stories of Central Florida (RICHES). This initiative joins the university with various community partners throughout the area.

The digital keynote of RICHES is the Mosaic Interface. This online tool connects the growing digital archive of UCF to all users on the Internet. Connected to a global map, artifacts are searchable by keywords and are connected to their physical location. Rather than housing digitized artifacts on a server that no one can see, the RICHES Mosaic Interface publicizes this information.

The free access to digital archives allows everyone, regardless of their physical location, to be able to learn about a variety of topics all over the world. As their digitization efforts grow, so too will the information on the website.

RICHES and Community Outreach

The faculty and staff at UCF are growing local partnerships to grow the RICHES Mosaic Interface. Where this archive was initially created by UCF faculty, staff and students, RICHES is now encouraging the community to become involved in the growth of the Interface. Local organizations and individuals can now contribute items to the archive. The more contributors to the Interface, the greater the amount of digitization, preservation, and education can be stored and shared!

What Meghan Learned Today

As digital photography is always growing, the desire to photograph in analog form is making a comeback! A large Lomography community exists to promote the advantages of analog photography.

Meghan's Tales: Digitizing History...An Accidental Meeting Through Scanning Photos & Beginning of a New Adventure

Follow along with the adventures of Meghan, the Aspiring D.P, in her new internship with E-Z Photo Scan.

You Can Meet the Nicest Folks at a History Harvest!

In March 2013, the University of Central Florida (UCF) partnered with digitization experts at E-Z Photo Scan, powered by i/oTrak, to conduct a History Harvest in the Sanford, Florida community. During the planning stages of this event, Meghan met staff of E-Z Photo Scan. This meeting grew to become a great partnership in executing the event and ultimately the beginning of an internship to learn about digitization.
But more about that later…

About Meghan the Aspiring D.P. (Digital Preservationist!)

Meghan is a graduate student at UCF that is interested in history and digital preservation.

Attending the second largest university in the United States, she has a great opportunity to engage in groundbreaking research that engages the study of history with new technologies. The more there is to learn about history, the greater the change to learn about how to digitize artifacts. As her role in the History Harvest grew over time, she became even more curious about the actual process of digitization.
 

Back To The Chance Meeting…

After the History Harvest ended, E-Z Photo Scan powered by i/oTrak partnered with UCF to create an internship for students to learn more about digitization. The internship offers students a way to gain first-hand experience in digitization while learning about new ways of studying history. The chance meeting with E-Z Photo Scan during the History Harvest has led Meghan to her newest adventure: an internship to learn about digital preservation.

This summer, you are invited to join along as Meghan shares her internship adventure with the readers of Digital Directions. Each week, Meghan will keep you up-to-date with the things she is getting involved with and you can have a front row seat in what her professor calls the 'Project Deliverables'.  Who knows, maybe we will even be able to help Meghan get an "A" for her course by offering our insights to her progress via our social media survey!

What’s a History Harvest?

The History Harvest is a community-based digitization project that began at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Faculty and students created a community-based project to share experiences and digitize personal items. The compilation of the digitized item and its associated information is then placed onto UNL’s History Harvest website for open access to local history.

After the growth of their success, Dr. Patrick Jones published an article in the American Historical Association’s publication Perspectives on History about how this event helps students and the community at the same time. The University of Central Florida held their first event this year. Later, many schools participated in a Google Hangout to discuss the future of these events, and how they can help the field of digital preservation. 

The History Harvest engineered by Meghan's class at UCF also captured a rich intensity of local treasured documents and photos that have now been preserved for generations to come. 

What Meghan Learned Today!

For a preservationist...there is a time to wear gloves when handling certain artifacts and a time NOT to wear them! Myths die hard in an industry that relies upon chronicling the past. Myths About White Gloves, White Gloves - Functional or Fashionable

Friday's Video: Preserving Your Digital Treasures...Some Advice From Down Under!

Our friends from the National and State Libraries Australia have just published a new resource about Preserving your digital treasures. It outlines an easy strategy to follow and best practices for archiving personal digital collections.

 

Preserving your digital treasures from State Library of Queensland on Vimeo.

E-Z Photo Scan is excited to join the growing genealogy community for RootsTech 2013, which is scheduled for this week (March 21—23, 2013) in Salt Lake City. This year marks the 3rd annual RootsTech conference. Thousands turned out for the previous two, and organizers say they expect this year’s conference to be the biggest and best yet, and we agree – in part because E-Z Photo Scan will be giving away a Kodak PS50 Scanner to one lucky conference goer! Read more...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for professional, high quality, high production ways to digitized you printed photographs? Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help. Visit their site to find out more.

At the heart of the quaint town of Apopka Florida is a treasure-trove of Central Florida history. The Apopka Historical Society and Museum of the Apopkans’ is the guardian of some of the community’s most important photographic and cultural history.

A History Rich & Important To Preserve
A few years ago, Museum officials began the painstaking process of digitally archiving the Museum’s photographic and historic documents, with volunteers from the community assisted by staff from E-ZPhotoScan.com helping with the process. The Museum of the Apopkans’archiving project is one we hold near and dear to our hearts here at EZPhotoScan.com, because of its importance in preserving the area’s history – and that includes the history of the Acuera and Seminole Indians, as well as the early pioneers of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida.

The history of Apopka is a rich one, and a very important part of American History as a whole.

A Home For More Than 2000 Years
Apopka was known as Acuera during the 16th and 17th centuries, named for the Timucua language-speaking Indians that inhabited the area at that time and probably as long as 2,000 years prior. The town was raided by soldiers of Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1539, and was known to the French in their brief tenure (1564-1565) in northern Florida. Acuera came under Spanish influence late in the 16th century, and two or three Spanish missions were established in the Acuera province during the 17th century. By 1730, the Acuera people had disappeared, probably decimated by diseases brought to Florida by Spanish colonists.

The Acuera were succeeded by refugees from Alabama and Georgia, who formed the new Seminole Indian tribe. They called the area Ahapopka, which means "potato eating place". By the 1830s, this settlement numbered about 200.

At the conclusion of the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, forcing surviving natives at Ahapopka to abandon their village and seek refuge deeper in the wilderness of the Florida peninsula.

Apopka’s early American settlers built a major trading center on the foundations of the earlier Indian settlement. Their population was large enough by 1857 to support the establishment of a Masonic lodge. In 1859 the lodge erected a permanent meeting place at what is now the intersection of Main Street (U.S. Highway 441) and Alabama Avenue.

Settlers were largely isolated during the Civil War. After 1865, a population boom followed the construction of railroad lines through the region. In 1882 the one square mile surrounding the Masonic Lodge (“The Lodge”) was officially incorporated under the name "Apopka". 

A Way To Preserve The Past...For The Future
Most of the photos in the Museum’s collection date from the mid-1800s and later, and include photos of area homes and buildings – some of which are now designated on the National Register of Historic Places including the Carroll Building, the Apopka Seaboard Air Line Railway Depot, the Mitchill-Tibbetts House (aka Miner House), the Ryan & Company Lumber Yard, the Waite-Davis House and the building that houses the Museum of the Apopkans. 

In order to help preserve the region’s remarkable history, EZPhotoScan.com gifted professional scanning equipment valued at nearly $3,500. 

The donation places professional scanning and archiving equipment in the hands of volunteers who are digitizing the Museum’s collection. EZPhotoScan is also contributing professional support services for the Museum’s volunteer staff. 

The state-of-the-art scanning and archiving equipment includes a 21-inch MSI touchscreen PC, a Kodak PS450 Walk-up Photo Scanner, and a Kodak Legal Flatbed Accessory. 

EZPhotoScan's Mylan Connolly delivering equipment toLarry Leudenburg of the Apopka Museum

The Museum’s first archiving project with the new equipment included a group of one-of-a-kind vintage postcards. After each portion of the Museum’s collection is scanned, the digitized items will be made available for viewing in the Museum and online as a part of the Museum’s growing digital collection. 

The Museum of the Apopkans currently has thousands of Apopka-related photos and treasured documents scanned and ready to exhibit online. The new digitizing equipment will also be made available to the public with Museum volunteer assistance, and plans are underway for preservation training classes within the community.

Since the equipment is mobile, a community history booth can be set up for certain community events, and Museum volunteers will be able to help members of the Apopka community scan their treasured documents and photos to share as part of the Museum’s permanent collection.

By making the digitizing equipment readily available to the community, the Museum expects to add some significant images from the private collections of families who have lived in the area for generations – a true community effort in archiving the region’s photographic and documented history permanently for future generations to see.

E-Z Photo Scan is excited to join the growing genealogy community for RootsTech 2013, which is scheduled for this week (March 21—23, 2013) in Salt Lake City. This year marks the 3rd annual RootsTech conference. Thousands turned out for the previous two, and organizers say they expect this year’s conference to be the biggest and best yet, and we agree – in part because E-Z Photo Scan will be giving away a Kodak PS50 Scanner to one lucky conference goer! Read more...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your photos and treasured documents are a vital link to the past. Digitizing them allows you to keep, protect, share & connect with them in new and exciting ways. Visit E-Z Photo Scan to learn more about the possibilities for achieving your digital preservation goals. E-Z Photo Scan is also part of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance and member of its Outreach Working Group.

As Attendees Begin To Converge @ RootsTech 2013 Take a "Test Drive" For The Chance to Win A FREE Professional Photo Scanner (value $2000.00)

Whether you’re an avid genealogist, a beginner, or simply someone who is interested in learning more about the latest technologies for improved archival search solutions, RootsTech 2013 has plenty to offer this year. This genealogy conference for everyone with an interest in ancestry research, family tree building, and the fascinating stories of their our predecessors.

Take A Test Drive For The Chance To Win A FREE Professional Photo Scanner

(value $2,000.00)

E-Z Photo Scan is excited to join the growing genealogy community for this conference, which is scheduled for March 21—23 in Salt Lake City. This year marks the 3rd annual RootsTech conference. Thousands turned out for the previous two, and organizers say they expect this year’s conference to be the biggest and best yet, and we agree – in part because E-Z Photo Scan will be giving away a Kodak PS50 Scanner to one lucky conference goer!

To be eligible to win the scanner, attendees need to come to the E-Z Photo Scan booth #257 and "test drive" the newest generation of Kodak photo scanners. We’re inviting everyone to take a few moments check out our dazzling demonstration of the Kodak PS50’s capabilities, and enter our drawing for this $2,000 give-away.

Discover the Stories of Your Ancestors

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is probably the best opportunity to discover the latest family history search tool technology and techniques, connect with experts in the genealogy community, and receive help with your research. Discovering the stories of your ancestors can be surprising, inspiring, and deeply rewarding. At RootsTech 2013, you can learn to use the latest technology to get started or accelerate your own efforts to find, organize, preserve, and share your family’s unique history.

Conference goers will be treated to a full track of getting started classes and labs for those folks who don’t know where to start in the search for their ancestors. They will also learn how to set up their family tree, and how to expand their research using the latest genealogy technology.

There Is Still Time!
If you’re considering a trip to Utah for RootsTech2013, there’s still time to register. You can purchase a full, three-day pass for $179 and receive access to all of the conference’s offerings, including more than 250 classes! If you’re coming for just one day, the admission price is $89. Students have a deeply discounted price of $39 for a three-day pass.

The Getting Started three-day pass is also available for beginners, who will have access to more than 30 classes at a cost of $49. The Getting Started one-day pass provides a selection of fundamental classes the help beginners get started for only $19.

Developers can get a full-day technology program pass for March 22 (Developers Day at RootsTech 2013).

The conference will feature world-class genealogy speakers from across the county and a distinguished group of genealogy professionals, all gathered together in the Salt Lake Plaza’s high tech exhibition hall.

High-Quality, High-Speed, Professional Photo Scanning Technology On Display By E-Z Photo Scan
E-Z Photo Scan is excited to be a presenter at RootsTech2013, and even more excited to give away another one of our Kodak PS50 high speed, professional quality scanners.

The PS50 is the perfect tool for scrapbooking and creating permanent digital files of family photos and important documents. E-book writers and self-publishers, designers, and collectors of photo and historic ephemera also turn to the PS50 for its high quality, high speed abilities to make any task fast, easy and enjoyable.

The Kodak PS50 scanner makes it easier than ever to transform generations of photographs and treasured memories into high-quality digital files so they can be preserved, shared, and displayed in exciting new ways.

Make sure to “like” our E-Z Photo Scan Facebook page and follow us on Twitter (#rootstech2013 is the official hashtag for the conference on twitter) for updates on the conference and the Kodak PS50 scanner give-away.

To learn more about RootsTech and register for a one-day or three-day pass, visit www.rootstech.org. While you’re there, be sure to stop by the E-Z Photo Scan booth and say hello. You might just walk away with the scanner of your dreams!