Lorena Donohue of the Littleton Historical Museum forwarded me your message
in the hopes that I might be able to offer some comments. Before I do, let
me introduce myself and the Colorado Digitization Project. The Colorado
Digitization Project began in the Fall of 1998 as a grant funded initiative
to form a collaborative approach to increasing access to Colorado's
historical, cultural, scientific and governmental information in digital
format. The initiative would involve archives, libraries, museums,
historical societies. The project in it's first year has identified 22
digitization initiatives in Colorado, of which approximately 50% are
non-library initiatives. We have created a website
http://coloradodigital.coalliance.org which brings together all these
projects. Additionally we put together a set of metadata standards that
would be useful by all 4 cultural institution types, recognizing that there
are different standards in each area. In addition to the metadata standards
there are standards for scanning. These standards are established as a
minimum set of standards for any project. Guidance on issues related to
scanning are provided along with the standards. We have also pulled
together a set of web-based and print resources that would be useful to any
project undertaking a digitization initiative. Please feel free to use
these standards. In addition to the standards you will also find a document
called getting started which lists a series of questions that you need to
ask prior to undertaking any digitization initiative. Many people want to
know what kind of scanner to buy, but you really need to know who your user
is and what needs they have that can/should be met with a digital version.
Liz Bishoff
The Colorado Digitization project
31157 Lewis Ridge Rd.
Evergreen CO 80439
303-679-0201-v
303-679-0282-f
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Jay Brennan Pattison
Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 2:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Inquiry: Digital Images
We at the Cincinnati Art Museum are now engaged in the planning stages of a
project that I know must be familiar to many of you: developing a database
of digital images of objects in the permanent collection. It would be of
immense help to our Digital Image Task Force if those of you who have had
experience in this area would share some information about how digital
imaging has been approached at your institutions. Specifically, we would
like to know the following:
1. Have you chosen to scan images at high resolution, low resolution, or
some combination of the two? DEPENDING ON THE USES, YOU WILL PROBABLY WANT
TO SCAN AT THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION APPROPRIATE TO THE ITEM, CREATING A MASTER
OR ARCHIVAL IMAGE. YOU WILL THEN DERIVE LOWER RESOLUTION IMAGES FOR THE
THUMBNAIL AND THE ACCESS VERSION. IT'S MOST IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU
CURRENT AND FUTURE USES WILL BE BEFORE YOU DETERMINE WHAT RESOLUTION TO SCAN
AT. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU WANT TO CREATE HIGH QUALITY PRINTS, YOU'LL NEED A
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGE. IF YOU WANT RESEARCHERS TO USE THE DIGITAL IMAGE,
YOU'LL NEED HIGH QUALITY RESOLUTION. IF IT'S FOR MARKETING/EPHEMERAL
PURPOSES ONLY THEN LOWER MIGHT DO. PRINCIPLE IS SCAN ONE. What intended
uses of the images informed your choice of image quality? More
specifically, if you have chosen to
create high-resolution image files, how do you plan to use them (e.g.
in-house publications, external publication requests, merchandise)? SEE OUR
STANDARDS FOR SOME OF THESE ISSUES.
2. How are your image files stored and how are they accessed? What led to
your choice of storage medium? WE'RE CURRENTLY RECOMMENDING STORING THE
MASTER IMAGE ON CD. THE ACCESS VERSION IS AVAILABLE VIA THE WEB, ALTHOUGH
SOME MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES ARE LIMITING ACCESS TO ONSITE USE ONLY AND THEN
CD ROM MIGHT SERVE THAT NEED. MIGRATION OF THE CD SOFTWARE IS CRITICAL FOR
LONG TERM ACCESS. SOME ORGANIZATIONS ARE DEVELOPING ONLINE REPOSITORIES OF
THEIR DIGITAL IMAGES, RATHER THAN USING CD.
3. What storage format (JPEG, TIFF, EPS, etc.) was used? DEPENDS ON IF IT'S
A MASTER, ACCESS, ETC. SEE SCANNING STANDARDS DOCUMENT.
4. Were the images scanned by an outside vendor or was the work done in-
house? Did the project require hiring additional staff members? If so,
how many were required?
5. What department or staff member is responsible for updating the
database with new images and general maintenance?
6. What is the approximate number of objects in your institution's
collection?
I would appreciate any help you can provide. Please respond either to the
list or off-line at:
email: [log in to unmask]
tel: (513) 639-2909
fax: (513) 639-2996
Thanks so much,
Jay Brennan Pattison
Associate Registrar
Cincinnati Art Museum
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