1. Introduction to Images and Documents
Digital Stewardship Curriculum

2. Temperature and Relative Humidity
Temperature: degrees Fahrenheit
Relative Humidity: 30-40% (fluctuating less than 10% per day)
Cold storage for sensitive materials: color photographs, nitrate film, or acetate film.
(room temperature or below), clean, and stable environment (avoid attics, basements, and other locations with high risk of leaks and environmental extremes) - Also heard 30-50% rh
40 degrees or below for cold storage - some articles out there about using household freezer units with certain requirements

3. Even if you don’t have temp and rh controls...
monitoring systems, from basic to more advanced - machine readable data
Get a thermometer and humidity reader – track manually

4. Handling and storage Clean hands, or gloves - keep food away!
Passed PAT: Folders, sleeves, envelopes - some flat
Paper enclosures, mylar
Organize by similar size, not overcrowded
If displaying
Light
Mounting
-clean hands -enforce this with staff/interns/students, gloves can be problematic sometimes but really useful sometimes
-have rules posted -Photographic Activity Test safest to use, make sure your supplies have passed this test! -storing large photos flat, or cased images
uncoated polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene (when viewing frequently)
- storing in evenly filled boxes, with supports if needed SO IMPORTANT
-display - use duplicates, avoid natural and artificial light (filters, sleeves), safely mount
-If you have to use originals, make sure to rotate - don’t leave on display -Use proper materials, do not damage originals, SHN resource showing you how!
-Light can fade prints AND paper - both natural and unnatural light -Different prints have different sensitivities -Can get filters for lights - esp in storage rooms - but keep dark when not in use.

5. SIMILAR SIZES depending on format

6. Photo Formats Photograph Process, Photograph Type Negatives and Prints
Ways to identify
Support material
Color and tone
Surface
Size
How the photo is deteriorating
image from ebay -Identifying photos - Why? dates, information, know how to best take care of them. -Many different types of photographic processes, and the final result (print) may vary ---albumen print cabinet card
-want to think about prints vs. negatives = Print (developed or photomechanical), negative (black and white or color)
-Can’t show you every single type of photograph in the time we have - so we will just discuss HOW you might go about identifying

7. Support materials graphics atlas
what the photo is printed ON or attached to
-plastic border, wider on bottom of print - polaroids contain both the negative and positive elements (integral)
-attached to a thick sturdy card - cabinet card or carte de visite
-metal! tintype, daguerreotype

8. Color and Tone cyanotype - blue tone over entire photo
autochrome slide transparency (rgb)

9. Surface
letterpress (photomechanical - printing out print) comprised of dots, 3 colors
salt print - developed out print - paper fibers visible, matte surface Matte or glossy

10. Size
standard sizes for different formats, also unique-looking types

11. Deterioration
graphics atlas
foxing - brownish red spots (stains that happen with age - unknown cause, perhaps fungal - humidity makes it worse) - often in albumen prints
silver mirroring - reflective, bluish hue in darkest shadows (humidity) - silver gelatin and albumen most common, but can happen to others

12. Photo dating and metadata
Family, community, land history
Clothing and hairstyles
Scenery, background, event information
If you are doing descriptions, you can get a lot out of photos. wisconsin historical society digital collections

13. Photo dating and metadata
Notch codes
Photographer information
Metadata written on or attached to photos, envelopes
Metadata from related items or collections
People, elders ID people, places, activities
If you have staff doign this work - make VERY clear guidelines about what to look for, and what format to write descriptions in.

14. Photo ID resources Graphics Atlas website PSAP - Photos and Negatives
Workshops - historical societies, universities
Books:
Care and Identification of 19th Century Photographic Prints
Photographs: Archival Care and Management

15. How to start digitizing?
In house
Collaboration
Outsourcing
LNW
Before we move into technical information...when you are planning and thinking more about your scanning projects - you have options for how you can choose to proceed -You can gather all the materials you need, and do it yourself
-You can find others in your area that have equipment, expertise, interns…
-You can find a vendor who you trust who will digitize for you for a fee (also metadata, conservation work)
All of these can be part of your overall digitization project - one is not better than the others, it just depends on what your project is, what resources and staff you have….and other factors CLICK

16. Good $100-200 Better $1500-1700 Best $2000-3000
Your goal is to create image files, in the best way you can...
-for equipment, you will want to think about several factors - there are A LOT Of options out there
-think about what you want the end product to be
-what funding do you have? What staff do you have to use the equipment?
-what formats do you have
*bring out gbb
-Mention maintenance contracts and upkeep etc

17. Copy stand with camera Large format Slide scanner
LNW - think about collaborating with others
Copy stand might be a good option - very flexible - but more specialized training
Also could reach out to others who might have these peices of equipment that are more specialized

18. Questions to Consider What is being digitized?
Where are the files going?
Where will they be stored?
Who will create them?
What guidelines will be followed?
What are the technical specifications?
-what format, what material
-how will they be used or accessed? - are they thumbnails or long term preservation? And do you need access copies?
-do you have storage space set aside (3-2-1, etc)? Fit in a DP plan?
-who will work on the project?
-What guidelines or standards will you follow?
-What are the tech specs, or settings?
The answers to all of these questions inform the decisions about how (equipment, throughput, staff, expertise, etc) and what (type of material, how much of it, how diverse it is - flatbed scanner will only work for flat, 2D paper material for instance)

19. I will be going over a lot of info - similar to when we talked about A/V materials
-don’t need to memorize info, i will give you links to look back on
-know where to CHANGE for digitization and CHECK these settings

20. File Copies - Master and Access
Preservation Master
Access Copy
Web-ready derivative
Most important point for organizing and preserving a digital collection -
-long term storage, best quality that you can afford
-short term (or long term) storage, smaller file created for providing access, editing
-short term storage, might be smaller than access copy, might be further edited
-Master and access copy might be created at the same time - never edit in your master, just your access.
Access copy - when no editing is needed
Web-ready derivative: Thumbnails, watermark
-image files are not as big as audio or video files, but it is still very important

21. Standards for Images and Documents
Where can I find them?
FADGI
Library of Congress Sustainable Formats
Library of Congress, NARA, Universities
Standards are always developing - keep track of
-fadgi Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative
-loc National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
-other institutions share their policies and standards they follow
(regional resources)

22. File Formats Best Practice: Master: TIFF (uncompressed)
Access: JPEG (compressed)
Other formats:
DNG (RAW); JPEG 2000, PDF, PNG, GIF
File type recommendation: TIFFs. Europe moving toward JPG 2000, but its a less stable file format overall. Low res jpgs can be created *from* high res tiffs but the reverse is not true - cannot make images higher quality or high res from low res
File size will differ, depending on the size of the original item, as well as the resolution and bit depth at which the digital file is created
Is the format going to be openable by viewers and editors that you use now, and many years from now
Will the company supporting the format go away? Open source is typically better, won’t get tied up w/ a proprietary format. Doesn’t mean you CAN’T use something proprietary - just be aware of what you are using
Again - the point of what quality you want to capture compared to how much can you store
Some file formats that you might be familar with...

23. Resolution
Resolution: The number of pixels in each dimension that can be displayed - the density of pixels in the image. PPI: pixels per inch (DPI = dots per inch)
pixels on long edge
also, have worked places where 600 dpi unless oversize or very small and 300dpi for documents across the board - make specifications for workflow
Or even based on file size

25. Finding an Item’s Best Resolution
Measuring the long edge with a ruler
pixels on long edge
Desired pixels divided by inches = Pixels Per Inch
Use equation, or chart
-Don’t try to save as a higher quality than is present in the original material

26. Can use this type of chart in your own digitization work
The length of the long edge (in inches) corresponds to a higher or lower resolution to set your scanner to.

27. Bit Depth
Bit depth: the color information stored in an image. (The higher the bit depth, the more colors an image can store.)
8 bit: 2^8= 256 colors
16 bit: 2^16 = 65,536 colors
24 bit: 2^24 = 16,000,000+ colors
48 bit: 2^48 = 3,000,000,000 colors
A 1 bit image only shows two colors – black and white greyscale you will choose that setting and then 8 bit capture at a high bit depth, then convert to a smaller bit depth for access files
we will be scanning at 48 bit, which is the highest archival quality, but much of the time, 24 bit is perfectly fine
-Higher for color, lower for black and white

28. capturing more values per channel - more detail, more tones

29. more examples, you can see that the higher bit depth you go - you capture more. Between 24 bit depth, and 48 bit depth it is hard to see a difference! That has to do with how monitors are able to display this information. So again, we are capturing at 48 bit - the archival standard, but 24 is a pretty standard bit depth for projects that you don’t need to print, or preserve in the long term.

30. Technical Specs - Color Mode and Tone
Color Mode: How colors combine over channels - each type of mode has a different number of channels. Adobe RGB (1998) or Adobe sRGB
Tone: Range of values in an image - you want the whites not too bright and the blacks not too dark. Each pixel has a value of
-Example - cmyk mode for full color printing, RGB for presenting on the web
-Blacks should not be lower than 9, whites should not be higher than 247 -Tone is very much based on the goals of the project

31. Using a color bar
-checking that your equipment is capturing accurately
-over time
-for the future
An option to use - can do high quality image scanning without, it is just another tool to use for quality control, and future information

32. Photograph Identification Activity
Use worksheets, work in pairs, to match the photographic process with the print.
Graphics Atlas - tool for identification help
---going back to the START of the digitization process (figuring out what formats you have)!
1 text descriptions of each type on back of paper, website up, and 2 handouts in binder. image from