As I read through the pros, but more particularly the cons of digital vs
microfilm, I recall the old adage that the Bishop of the Diocese of Virginia
spoke some years ago. He said it was the "Seven Last Words of a
Church"...... but it applied universally.
"We've Always Done it That Way Before"
Back up and look at what libraries and archives do, and I reduce it to the
three functions that our good Moravian Friends down in Winston Salem
articulate ...... PRESERVE SHARE and CELEBRATE
There is no other state in the nation that has more to preserve, share and
celebrate than we Virginians. Let's take the three one at a time.
PRESERVE - I acknowledge that microfilm may indeed be the best solution in
the long term 100 years. It has been around at least a century, and like
analog TV, the human eye and human brain can accept very poor images and
reconstruct a good facsimile of the original. Digital data is barely 30
years old. But digital is here to stay, and I suggest for intermediate
storage is fine.
SHARE - Microfilm falls upon its sword here. One digital image can be
shared world-wide. Look at the statistics of UTube and the number of people
a day who watch given sites. It does not take a huge investment or a rocket
scientist to scan and build a digital data base. I have a simple Canon
scanner with automatic feed. It cost about $300 as I recall a few years
ago. You can "scan to batch" which takes whatever string of characters you
want to use and adds sequential (or skip by some number if you think there
might be later inserts) numbers to the files that are created. Example:
String="DeWitt Clinton Diary of the Civil War:"
The first image, automatically scanned will be
DeWitt Clinton Diary of the Civil War:001
The next
DeWitt Clinton Diary of the Civil War:002
You can specify whether you want scan grayscale, color, etc.
My experience is that you probably want to go back and trim the images,
maybe add more contrast etc, but you should be doing that with microfilm
too, so that is a wash.
The next step that I use is to convert everything to .PDF files. This is
about the closest that we can come to a universal reader. That is a simple
matter of entering the ADOBE program, and giving it the directory of where
all your images are. It produces a single document for you. But then the
REALLY plus-plus...... you can tell it to recognize any text on those
images. It then proceeds to go through the file, page by page and extract
any text that it can find. This is particuarly useful if you are scanning
old newspapers and magazines. The conversion greatly reduces the size of
the file. But the biggest advantage is that it produces SEARCHABLE text.
You can search the document for words and phrases. Like in my example
above, look for every instace of "Port Republic" and let me see it on the
page.
CELEBRATE - This is a no-brainer once you have everything in digital form.
It cost very little to put out a notice that such-and-such is available.
The recent notice of the availability of Southwestern Virginia stuff is a
great example. But you can also distribute smaller collections attached to
EMail. Most EMail handlers will accept up to 10MB of attachments. I'll
give you a real-life opportunity to experience this.
In recognition of a young friend who has just returned from a year of US
Army service in Afghanistan, last month I wrote a march which I call AFGHAN
ANDY, after the nickname his father gave him when he was deployed. It is
for full concert band, and all digitized into PDF. The "package" has:
1 PDF file with the Score and all parts (1st cornets, baritone, drums, etc.
about 22 different ones) from which you can make however many copies you
want for your band. 1.6 MBytes of data and images
1 MP3 file with a performance of the march you can listen to on your
computer or MP3 player. This is about 4.5 MBytes
If you do what I wish you would do after you listen to the march, you then
give a copy to your favorite band (or bands) and ask them to play it to
honor all the men and women who have served in our armed forces,
particularly those overseas today. The Stonewall Brigade Band in Staunton
has already taken me up on the offer and have programmed it for their joint
concert with the 29th Army Band around the fourth of July this year. Folks,
that is truly CELEBRATION!
If you want to be a part of what I'm talking about, just send me your EMail
address and I'll get the recording and music to you by return EMail.
Randy Cabell
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyle E. Browning" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:29 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] New LVA microfilm
> On Feb 19, 2009, at 10:49 PM, Karen Stuart wrote:
>
>> The post-processing labor is far, far more more involved and costly
>> for a digital project--someone has to index and then link up all those
>> images so that they display in proper order.
> I find it hard to believe that the cost of all those MF readers at all of
> the locations and their maintenance would be exceeded by the one- time
> indexing of records.
>>
>>
>> Your point about simultaneous users is well taken, and I love using
>> high-resolution digital images--but before research use, we need to
>> value *preservation* of the records. I doubt many institutions have
>> even 25% of their holdings on microfilm. To better secure the
>> collections, and for my tax dollars, I'd rather see that number
>> increased to 50% or 75% and reserve the Cadillac treatment for the
>> most important, highly used records. I think that the Library of
>> Virginia is doing a good job of balancing these competing interests.
> AFAIK, the LOV has shut down the digitalization project a few years ago
> due to budgetary constraints. I would love to find I am wrong. Where's
> the balance in that?
>
> Also, with a bit of imagination, the users could do in-depth indexing.
> Instead of duplication of effort, information on digital records could be
> entered into the system by the folks that use the newly digitized
> records. Lord knows there are enough of them out there who drool over the
> possibilities of using newly recorded info to make that work.
>
> Furthermore, rather than static MF readers, a computer not hooked up to
> any system could be used by each user to enter info into a database.
> Given the vast numbers of people who search deeds, tax records and the
> even more vast hordes of genealogical researchers going over the same
> records time after time, I would think that in less than 10 years the
> entire dataset could be digitized by the users. If we donated our older
> computers to the LOV for that purpose and had them sit beside the MF
> readers, both sides of the equation would benefit. No point in all that
> data getting digitized and going into a data black hole, is there?
>
> Has the LOV given thought to accepting digital records? Yes it has. For
> instance, I have a project in downtown Richmond for which the 1782
> census, the 1819, 1852, 1960 and 1870 city directories will be completely
> digitized. For the first time, that info will be available for use as
> those records will be donated in digital form to the LOV. Once digitized,
> they can be migrated to whatever software/hardware comes along. And
> anyone on earth can access them with a computer, etc. etc. et danged
> cetera.
>
> Another person's opinion.
>
> Lyle the Digitally Frustrated Researcher
>>
>> One person's opinion.
>>
>> Karen Stuart
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:08 PM, Lyle E. Browning <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>> A scanner already in place costs the same as a person to run a MF
>>> machine,
>>> presumably. After that, MF costs are way higher. Far fewer people can
>>> have
>>> access, it's B&W, the resolution isn't great, and so on and so forth.
>>
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