The Museum of Vision is also digitizing its collection (artifats, archives
and rare books).  The equipment we use:
Sony Mavica CD300 (digital camera that stores directly to CD-ROM)
UMAX Power Look Scanner
RE:Discovery Software (both the collections and archives modules)

I highly recommend the camera and the scanner.  They do a great job and were
relatively cheap for higher-end equipment.  The bonus with the scanner is
that I can create high-resolution images for our exhibit posters without any
difficulty.  Re:Discovery has also served our needs.  In my last position I
used CuadraSTAR and find both software packages to be adequate although not
stellar (this is mostly because I find their interfaces to be difficult and
not at all intuitive).

We're practically neighbors, so give me a buzz if you want to get all the
gory details about our process!

-Jenny

--
Jenny E. Benjamin, MA
Director, Museum of Vision
EyeCare America
(415) 561-8502
(415) 561-8533 FAX
[log in to unmask]
www.museumofvision.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Ruth Lang
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 3:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Digitizing and computerizing collections


I work for the Fresno Historical Society which administers the Kearney
Mansion Museum (valleyhistory.org).  We are currently looking at funding to
digitize and computerize our archival collection.  What computer equipment
do
other organizations on this list use?  What do you like or dislike about the
equipment? We are looking at Dell models. What collection software do you
recommend?  We have looked at Past Perfect.  How does that compare with
other
programs?  We have also looked into the Epson Expression 1640XL Graphic Arts
scanner.

Any help would be most appreciated!

Ruth Lang
Archival Assistant
Fresno Historical Society
7160 W. Kearney Blvd.
Fresno, CA 93706
559.441.0862

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