How Bad is “Good Enough”?Mass Digitization of Photographic
Archives
James Eason
The Bancroft Library
University of California at Berkeley
My Context
Is mass digitization an answer?
Photographs: Considerations for Scanning Strategies
• Perceived value(s)
• Preservation needs
• Reproduction is key to use
• Description: more detail justified?
• Concept of “archival evidence”
Digitization of Photos
Do it once, do it right?
or Just do it?
Low-Cost Approach
• Scan everything (no selection)
• Minimal keying of existing sleeve data
• Batch processing
• No image adjustment
• No quality control review!
• Batch validation (automated scripts)
Cost/Quality Compromise
• 800 ppi resolution (for 4 x 5 in.)
• 16 bit grayscale (not 8 bit)
Low-Cost Approach
Results
21,000 negatives scanned
$1.50 to $3.00 per image
Case Study
The San Francisco Examiner Newspaper Photograph Archive
at The Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley
San Francisco Examiner News Archive
• Over 3.5 million negatives
• 70,000 of these are nitrate film (4x5 in.)
• 1.5 million or more are acetate
Priorities
• Preservation (triage & storage environment)
• Access• Long term preservation plan
(with support from NEH)
What is “Doing it Right”???
“Preservation reformatting” is ill-defined in the digital age
Mass Digitization as a Tool
• Access• Curatorial assessment & appraisal• Preservation?
– Assessment– Preserve context
Two Work-flows Tested
Vendor
• List sleeves• Ship off-site• Raw scans + basic
metadata returned• Batch validation • Batch derivatives• Load to server
Students • List sleeves & items • Scan in office• Raw scans, key
data while scanning• Batch validation• Batch derivatives• Load to server
What did we get for our effort?
(Or, “How bad is good enough?”)
Is that all?
(No, actually):
– Serviceable production masters– Curatorial review tool– Strategic preservation strategy
• Context & archival evidence (all)• Selected images (very few)
Preservation Strategy
What will we preserve?Full aesthetic value?
Context and basic information?
• Select for Preservation Reformatting5 % ?
2 % ?
• Recorded archival context of the whole• Consider film-from-digital for entirety of nitrate files
ReiterateComparison of Scan Approaches
• High res (1200 ppi +)
• High bit depth• Huge file sizes• Manually adjusted• Quality control • $12-$18 / image
• High-ish res (800 ppi)
• High bit depth (16 bit)
• Large-ish files (22 MB)
• Batch processed• Batch validation• $1.50-$3 / image
What’s Next?
• User interface– Assess impact
• More funding to continue
• Further assessment of film output approaches
Appendix
User interface examples
