Museum Monday: A Treasure Trove of Scanned Photos & Documents on an Island Museum

The Ellis Island Immigration Museum is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor between 1892 to 1954.

Located in the upper bay just off the New Jersey coast, within the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island Immigration Museum is one of the country's most popular historic sites. The museum is located in the Main Building of the former immigration station complex.

More Than a Museum
In 2001, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, in partnership with the National Park Service, unveiled the American Family Immigration History Center®. This exciting family research facility at Ellis Island provides visitors with advanced computer and multimedia technology, printed materials, and professional assistance for investigating immigration history, family documentation, and genealogical exploration.

The museum’s collection consists of approximately 390,000 individual items systematically recorded and accessible through over 48,000 computerized records and over 1 million archival records. The collection is organized into the categories of history, archeology and natural history.

At a Time When Photography was Coming of Age
The same time immigrants were making their way into America through the Ellis Island immigration depot, cameras and photography were finding their way into the hands of the general public.  As a result, for the first time it is possible to tell the story of Ellis Island with photographs. These pictures allow us now to peer firsthand into the lives of those coming to make a new life for themselves in a new country more than a century ago.

The National Park Service has put together an online collection of Ellis Island Photos & Multimedia whose images - some historic and some more recent - show Ellis Island's history, up to the present-day.

A Great Place to Start
If you are just starting your family history research then the Ellis Island Immigration Museum is a terrific place to begin. According to The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., more than 100 million Americans may find records of their family's beginnings in the new world here. The American Family Immigration History Center® allows you to access the passenger records of the ships that landed some 22 million immigrants, crew members, and other passengers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924. Experienced volunteers can provide guidance so visitors can view manifests and ship images from their ancestor's journey.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you, or your organization.

Friday's Video: A look into the future | Google Glasses

Imagine being able to remain connected, take photos and view streaming video all while carrying on your daily routine. That reality may not be so far off!

Digital Directions is sponsored by E-Z Photo Scan. Get started photo scanning today by renting or purchasing a Kodak Photo Scanner, or by using our photo scanning services.

Online Searches for Photo Organizer on the Rise

How 'hot' are the searches for those professionals associated with helping us get organized?  We wanted to see how the public's searches for "professional organizer" and "photo organizer" compared.

Google It!
Google Trends lets you compare the world’s interest in a favorite topic. After entering up to 5 topics, Google Trends will show how frequently they have been searched on Google over time. It also correlates Google News stories about your topics and where people are searching for them most.

Professional Organizer vs. Photo Organizer Google Trends results indicate searches for "professional organizer" has remained relatively flat over the past year. Meanwhile, since late in 2011, activity online pertaining to searches for "photo organizer" has begun to rise. This coincides with the formal introduction of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.

Source: Google Trends

Appo members specialize in bringing expertise, knowledge and skill sets that can get - and keep - your photo organizing project on track. Photo Organizers work with clients on a personal level. They help to sort through images, find connecting themes, neatly catalogue and edit them into photo narratives and albums you will be proud to share with family or friends – now and for years to come.

If you need some help getting your photos and memories organization project launched, there is an Appo member in your area ready to take on the challenge.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Learn more about photo organizing, scanners, training, and service options for you or your organization.Blog Contributor, Richard (Rick) Lippert is a Certified Appo Member.

Making a Stack of Photos 80 Eiffel Towers High Every Day On the Internet!

Few people enjoy learning through a dusty textbook. MBAonline.com has ditched the theories and complex equations to help us learn about the world in a method we can quickly digest. Here's one showing all the information consumed on the Internet each day...

Browse more data visualizations.

Library of Congress Lends a Hand to Preserve Your Personal Memories

The Library of Congress' mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people. One of those objectives is to preserve the meaningful digital content of the nation.

Overseen by the LOC, the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) was established by the U.S. Congress in 2000, to implement a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available significant digital content, especially information that is created in digital form only, for current and future generations.

Ways on How to Preserve Your Own Digital Materials
While the NDIIPP seeks to implement a national strategy for digital preservation, the personal memories of the average American is not lost in this endeavor. This initiative understands that digital preservation is important to everyone.

To help, the LOC has developed an extensive personal archiving section within the digital preservation area of their website. It contains useful downloadable information such as;

• How to Scan Your Personal Collections
• How Long Digital Storage Media Will Last

How Much Do You Really Know?
Getting involved is really the key to learning, so the LOC offers a number unique online learning experiences. First, there is an interactive slideshow about digital heritage and the importance of digital preservation. This program allows you to explore digital preservation through several different, user selected channels, including; Digital Heritage, Personal Digital Heritage, Shared Digital Heritage, and Digital Preservation.

Then, test your knowledge using a quiz that offers up questions about why digital materials can be more difficult to preserve than physical ones. Take a swing at answering questions like how similar preserving your print and digital materials are, or ways to preserve a digital photographs. Don’t worry about not knowing the correct answer. There are links leading to you all sorts of information to get you back on track if you happen to miss hitting the mark on your first try!

This Digital Thing is Gonna Be Huge!
We are creating content in using our digital devices faster than information has ever been created before. Take pictures as just an example... According to 1000Memories.com blog, Facebook’s photo collection has a staggering 140 billion photos, that’s over 10,000 times larger than the Library of Congress. Just as libraries are preserving the nation's digital memory, individuals need to take steps to preserve their own digital memories. Be sure to check out the tips the LOC has made available to you!

Digital Directions is sponsored by E-Z Photo Scan. Get started photo scanning today by renting or purchasing a Kodak Photo Scanner or by using our photo scanning services.

Museum Monday: MFA - Images Help Make the Arts Available to Everyone

MFA website visitors can send an e-Card to family or friends

In one of America’s most historic cities you will find one of the nation’s most progressive museums. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston uses its vision of the future to offer new and dynamic presentations of the arts to the public. Opening its doors to the public on July 4, 1876, the nation's centennial, the MFA today is considered one of the most comprehensive art museums in the world. More Than A Museum
The MFA offers 53 galleries to visit that include exhibits ranging across a wide diversity of collections such as the Ancient World, Photography, Jewelry, Textiles, Musical Instruments and Prints, to name just a few. It also includes a School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Fine Arts Library and Museum Archives.

Having an ‘Artful Adventure’ is just one of the many outreach programs the MFA engages in to bring its collections to the community of the Greater Boston area. There are teen programs, kids and family programs, too. An annual calendar is always filled with events scheduled throughout the year with lectures, courses and special presentations. There is even a special College Night event where the MFA welcomes students from Boston-area colleges, universities to become acquainted with the Museum.

Visit the Museum Without Going to Boston
According to the MFA’s Annual Report, in 2011 the museum hosted over 1.2 million visitors. However, it is the MFA’s dedication to a mission of ‘art is for everyone’ that has seen it touch significantly more than just those privileged to have been able to walk among its physical buildings.

Harnessing the power of the Internet, MFA reached out to over 4.3 million online visitors in 2011, using one of the most extensive museum outreach programs to explore museum collections created. The MFA has developed an online Collection Exploration Portal, and MFA Social Media On-ramp. The Exploration Portal connects to the online collections while the Social Media On-Ramp at will connect you with ways to sign up for MFA e-Mail news, view videos on YouTube, join MFA on Facebook, view the MFA Flickr Gallery, follow them on Twitter, visit on Foursquare, find them on Google+ and follow MFA on Pinterest. 160,000 License Images for Reproduction from MFA
In keeping with making art available to everyone the MFA has created MFA Images. MFA Images offers unparalleled experience and quality, implementing the latest technology in direct digital capture, processing, and delivery along with a growing image archive suitable for all types of reproduction. It offers high-quality images for publishing needs, from illustrating an art history text book to capturing attention on the cover of a novel. MFA Images are also available for study and/or personal use. The MFA Images collection includes historical portraits, examples of different art movements, images of objects from numerous cultures, and beautiful illustrations that span the Museum's encyclopedic collection. Making It Personal MFA has created a special MyMFA site that allows you to personalize your visit to mfa.org by managing your e-mail preferences, collecting your favorite artworks, and sharing your interests. When you are logged in to MyMFA, you can “collect” any artwork in the online collection by using the Collection Search. Once you find an object you’d like to add, click on it to open up the detail page. Underneath the image on the left is an “Add to Favorites” link, which will automatically add it to your My Favorite Art page.
See It Virtually Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director, leads a virtual tour of the MFAs new Art of the Americas Wing. Tour the 3-D model of The New MFA, with its new wing to the east, revived north-south axis between entrances, and dramatic glass-enclosed Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you, or your organization.

Friday's Video: Smithsonian Institution Libraries - Creating the Digital Library

The Smithsonian Libraries plays an essential role at the Institution. The combined collections include approximately 1.5 million volumes with 40,000 rare books, and have especially strong holdings in most of the Institution's historical disciplines including Natural History, History of Science and Technology, Anthropology, Philately and Postal History, African and Asian Art, American Art and Portraiture, Aviation and Space Exploration, Botany and Horticulture, Decorative Arts and Design, Tropical Biology, Museology, and Native American and African American History and Culture.

This short video shows the process currently underway to convert the libraries content into digital assets.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you or your organization.

Getting Your Photos Organized: Lessons From Eating Elephants & The Lone Ranger

There are photos spilling out of shoeboxes or tucked away into albums stashed in closets. If only there was a way to finally get them sorted, organized and digitized. But, it is just too much of a seemingly herculean task to even start.

Unfortunately, statistics tell us that unless you do something different than what you are doing now, more than likely not much is going to ever happen to change the fact that your photo organizing goal is simply a dream with a high probability of never coming true.

How do you eat an elephant?
The answer is one bite at a time! However, although we all know the saying, most of us often fail to apply this lesson in our lives. Instead we try and take on the elephant as a single serving only to end up overwhelmed, disappointed and totally discouraged.

The unfortunate part is for many of us, unless we feel it is possible for us to walk up into the batter’s box, swing our bat at the pitcher’s first throw, and connect with the ball to make a home-run hit, we very likely may never try to play in the game at all!

It is the fear of not being able to deliver, or of actually failing that has ended many good intentions before they ever really got started. While we know better, we all pile our plates with a helping of a complete elephant - look at the hopelessness of the situation and quietly move on. The result is our goal simply just never seems to get accomplished.

Avoiding the Large - Opting for Reasonable
Our satisfaction in life would probably be a lot higher if we decided to divide up those major milestones we set for ourselves into smaller sized goals. As blogger Hunter Nuttall puts it; “That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have big goals, only that you should also have smaller ones to focus on along the way.”

Take for instance a desire to get all your photos sorted, organized, digitized and online so they can be shared with family or friends. If you focus upon the big goal, you will very likely remain frustrated as time marches on and those photos remain in their shoeboxes and albums untouched because you have been unable to find the time to take on the challenge to root through the thousands of individual photos and begin the sorting and organizing process (not to mention the digitizing part!).

Instead, by setting smaller goals you get the chance to enjoy the journey. Chunking out big goals into more manageable, smaller ones also means you will begin almost immediately to enjoy the satisfaction of making progress and seeing demonstrable results.

Don’t Suffer From The Lone Ranger Syndrome
Are you trying to do everything yourself? There is no need to suffer a feeling of being overwhelmed and isolated. It’s simple – get some help.

Consider hiring a professional with expertise, knowledge and skill sets. Look to outsource parts of the project that you just can’t seem to get excited about or are holding you back. And finally, surround yourself with a support team to brainstorm ideas, plan and strategize.

That’s where the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (Appo) can help. Its members specialize in bringing expertise, knowledge and skill sets that can get - and keep - your photo organizing project on track. Photo Organizers work with clients on a personal level. They help to sort through images, find connecting themes, neatly catalogue and edit them into photo narratives and albums you will be proud to share with family or friends – now and for years to come.

If you need some help getting your photos and memories organization project launched, there is an Appo member in your area ready to take on the challenge.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you or your organization. Blog Contributor, Richard (Rick) Lippert is a Certified APPO Member.

Old Photos, In Same Place, At Different Time Equals New Platform

Who knew what an overwhelming response Taylor Jones would get all because of a few photos.

Within just a few short weeks after taking them, news of these photos and others like them that he had created would sweep across the globe. Millions visited his website to see this digital imaging phenomenon for themselves, while hundreds struck out to create their own genre-like depictions and submitted them to Jones’ site to be included along with his.

A Kitchen Table, An Old Photo, and An Impulse.
Seems that when the 22 year old Taylor was flipping through an old family photo album at his parent’s kitchen table in May 2011, he happened to come across an image of his brother sitting at the very same table taken long ago. It was Jones’ next impulsive action that would be the tipping point.

What Taylor did next was to pull the old picture from the album, then while holding it in the same position as its original location among the table and chairs, he snapped a new picture with his digital camera. The result was a powerful new picture mixing the present with the past.

Taylor created a number of other picture within a pictures and then posted them up onto a website he called DearPhotograph.com. He then invited others to submit their own creations. Within just a few weeks millions were visiting his website, while hundreds were submitting photos of their own!

A Phenomenon Waiting to Be Unleashed
DearPhotograph.com set Taylor Jones upon a journey of epic proportion. Thousands of submissions later he has been featured by major media organizations from around the world. On May 8th, Dear Photograph the Book, is due out. The book shares 200 photographs, along with the personal stories of those submitting them.

In a recent interview, Taylor shared how some of the submissions were funny, while others emotional. Yet, it was the mix of emotion and nostalgia that he felt allowed people to relate to the resulting new images that combined the past and present, pulled at their heartstrings and has propelled DearPhotograph.com into its meteroric rise.

A Good Idea Goes Commercial
So, if you knew about DearPhotograph.com and were watching game seven of the World Series 2011, then you may have had a moment of déjà vu as the television commercial for the 100th birthday of Chevrolet aired. 

 

Old photos of Chevy’s in the same place they were originally taken now appeared as a mix of the present and past in a picture within a picture, as a jazzed up version of “America the Beautiful” played on the background. Seems like the top-notch ad agency handling GM’s account knew a good thing when they saw it...and DearPhotograph.com was a good thing!


Time in a Bottle
It was Jim Croce who penned, “If I could save time in a bottle...”. Those words and that melody went on to help make him a number one hit singer-songwriter.

Preserving the past is a part of our make-up. It is who we are as humans. To be human is to collect things. We instinctively reach out to connect in order to add a sense of identity of who we are and what we have been through. Ultimately, this process shapes our futures.

For most of us, our very own time in a bottle has been a legacy of photographs. Enabled by the technology of a momentary photograph flash, trillions of fragments of time have been left have been left behind. In essence, leaving ‘time standing still’. DearPhotograph.com has unlocked our bottled up emotions by providing a new platform that mixes our past with our present.

Interview with Taylor Jones, DearPhotograph.com Creator

Got Photos? Library of Congress Offers Free Online Webinar With Preservation Tips To Help Preserve & Protect Them

During April 22-28, 2012, libraries all over the country will be celebrating Preservation Week with events, activities, and resources that highlight what we can do, individually and together, to preserve our personal and shared collections.

Preservation Week was created by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) in 2010 because some 630 million items in collecting institutions require immediate attention and care. Eighty percent of these institutions have no paid staff assigned responsibility for collections care; 22 percent have no collections care personnel at all. Personal, family, and community collections are equally at risk.

The Library of Congress Leading the Way
This year, the Library of Congress announced in a recent press release its complete week's schedule of events to celebrate “Preservation Week: Pass It On”. The week is filled with films, events and presentations hosted at the LOC, located in Washington, D.C.

However, mindful of the role it plays as the nation’s library, the LOC has scheduled a free, online event for Thursday, April 26, 2012, at 2 PM EST. This webinar is designed to reach to the entire country and allow them to participate in a very important topic about how to take care of the ever growing number of digital pictures we all have stacking up on our cameras, hard drives and in the 'cloud'. The program is entitled; "Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs." The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program will present information about learning to care for digital photos. It is hosted by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services and is free, however, registration is required at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/666813208

Learn More
Here are some places you can find out more about Preservation Week @ Your Library 2012:

• More about events planned by the Library of Congress
• More about events planned by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (includes many webinars)
• More about Preservation @ Your Library

Preservation Week: Pass It On Events Scheduled Nationwide
View Preservation Week Events: 2012 in a larger map

Digital Directions is sponsored by E-Z Photo Scan. Get started photo scanning today by renting or purchasing a Kodak Photo Scanner or by using our photo scanning services.

Museum Monday: Pictures Help Connect the Dots for Library, Archive, Museum, Church, Sovereign City/State - All-in-One !

Photo Courtesy: Jim Carlucci

Within the 110 acres of the independent sovereign city-state, circumscribed by Rome, capital of Italy, we find this week’s featured museum.

More Than the Divine
The Vatican Library and Vatican Museum are part of Vatican City, the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population. As the Holy See and jurisdiction for the Catholic Church, Vatican City does not just oversee those things of a religious and political order, but is owner of some the most famous art in the world.

A Collection of Over 1.1 Million Books Plus 250,000 Other Items
The Vatican Library holds one of the world’s most expansive collection of historical literary works ever amassed. It has even been cannonized in modern literature by authors such as Dan Brown in his epic novel, Angels & Demons for its Secret Archives collection, which is said to contain 150,000 items that were separated from the general archives at the beginning of the 17th century.

On the official website, links are available for the Manuscript, Archrival, Printed Books, Prints & Drawings, and Coins & Medals collections. A prestigious Photographic Collection is part of the Prints Cabinet.

First to Bringing Art to the Public: Then and Now
The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture. Today, there are more than 5 million visitors to the Vatican Museum’s 54 galleries, each year. There they take in works spanning across time from ancient Egypt, to Roman sculptures. Renaissance works created by the Masters such as da Vinci and Michelangelo also await. In the Sistine Chapel look up and take in the spectacular grandeur of over 5000 square of frescoes affixed onto ceiling that is suspended between heaven and earth.

Map copyright PlanetWare.com

The Vatican Museum has been identified as an UNESCO World Heritage Site placing it among the 936 properties that form part of the cultural and natural heritage the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value. Keenly aware many more individuals will never have the opportunity to visit personally than ever do, the Vatican Museum has created a Virtual Online Portal to access much of its content. Completely free and accessible from anywhere in the world, the online portal allows visitors the chance to experience some of the vast treasures the Vatican Museum has within its collections.

Photography At the Vatican Library & Museum Makes It All Possible
So, how does the Vatican make it possible for the billions of us who will never get to personally visit the Holy See to have access to these treasures of history?

It’s Photographic Laboratory holds the answer. The Photographic Laboratory produces reproductions of the Library’s manuscripts, publications, artifacts and other objects, using the most suitable techniques, whether for internal use or for external customers. It carries out requests for reproductions approved by the Directors of the various Departments, and manages and updates its own photographic archive. It is made up of a sector which produces reproductions using analog photographic equipment and of a more recent sector which uses digital technology.

It is the Photographic Laboratory that makes it possible to order photocopies (only for printed books published between 1601 and 2000), black & white photographs, color photographs, microfilms, or CD-ROMs made from microfilms (in the case of printed books, only if they were published before 1990), from manuscripts or from photographs of objects.

Vatican Rome Slideshow: TravelPod Attractions’s trip to Rome, Lazio, Italy was created by TripAdvisor. See another Rome slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you or your organization.

Friday's Video: Erik Johansson - Impossible Photography

Source: Erik Johansson,
Professional Photographer & Retoucher

TEDTalks recently featured Photoshop wizard, Erik Johansson, who described how by combining photographs he is able to create different realities. 


According to Johansson, the art of capturing ideas through photography, rather than using it to simply record the moment, unlocks a limitless flow of potential in loosening the bonds of our imaginations.


If you enjoy digital imaging, then you will be amazed at this impossible photography.

Digital Directions is sponsored by E-Z Photo Scan. Get started photo scanning today by renting or purchasing a Kodak Photo Scanner, or by using our photo scanning services.

10 Reasons Photo Organizing Gets Personal

Let’s face it...if you are like most everyone else, there just simply never seems to be enough time to get all the things done that you actually would like to accomplish!

There may be lots of reasons. However, in the end the results are the same. Piles of unfulfilled acts and want-to-do’s either postponed, ensnared, or possibly discarded while stress and frustration levels elevate!

Besides constraints on time, another huge roadblock we face to getting things done is being organized & staying organized. 

We know organized people save time and money. We get the fact they reduce their stress and frustration levels. But if you are like most of us, that is a brass ring often just out of reach.

Is There A Place Turn for Help?
Well, maybe it is time to use a life-line to call in some help! Turns out there's a lot of help to be had out there.

According to Taruna Chhabra, an eHow contributor; “Professional organizers are specialized organizers who can be hired to organize all types of spaces. They utilize their organizational skills to help arrange people's spaces and at times locate important things without stress. While most professional organizers can organize all types of spaces, some choose to specialize in organization of specific areas.”

When You’ve Seen One - Well...You’ve Seen One!
The nation’s leading organizing authority is the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). Its experts in the organizing industry agree there are no “cookie cutter” solutions for getting organized. They suggest looking to a professional who can help you with a system that is going to work best taking into account the many different personality types, work styles, and environmental influences. In other words, watch out for the 'one-size-fits-all' approach. Look for the professional that seeks to achieve your individual needs, desires, and expectations in a personal way.

Top 10 Services Provided by Organizers
Ever wonder what a professional organizer does? Here is a NAPO list of the top ten services organizers provided to their clients:

1. Hands-on organizing
2. Maintenance (organizing)
3. Consulting
4. Speaking at meetings/conferences
5. Moves/relocations/downsizings
6. Coaching
7. Project Management Coordination
8. Training
9. Writing organizing articles/columns
10. Design

Getting My Photos Organized With a Personal Photo Organizer
So, just like the other ‘things’ in our lives that may need special attention in order to get organized - many people’s photos, slides and home movies end up in places where they will likely never see the light of day without someone to come alongside and help you make it happen.

That’s where the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (Appo) can help. Its members specialize in providing those top 10 services listed above, specifically for photo related organizing! Photo Organizers work with clients on a personal level. They help to sort through images, find connecting themes, neatly catalogue and edit them into photo narratives and albums you will be proud to share with family or friends – now and for years to come.

If you need help regaining control of your photos and memories, there is an Appo member in your area ready to take on the challenge.

Digital Directions sponsor E-Z Photo Scan can help you get started archiving your photos digitally! Click to learn more about photo scanners, training, and service options that are right for you or your organization. Blog Contributor, Richard (Rick) Lippert is a Certified APPO Member.