Subject: Re: Photo storage of scans From: SARA STEELE <smsteele@wisc.edu> Message-id: <d568f2ee-3606-8418-89c0-655034bbb505@wisc.edu> Date: Fri, 22 May 2020 08:27:42 -0500
Hi Brian
I’ll take a crack at the scan inventory. I believe that photos and
other visuals and the local information that goes with them are the most
important things a community Historical Society can preserve.
I suggest you start as follows.
1.Replace the scan image numbers with a chronological photo numbers (or
other means of individual scan identification.)
2. Develop a one line description of the content of the scan starting
with the scan number.
3. Put the numbered phrases in to a list ordered according to the image
numbers.
I recommend using a spread sheet because the list can be copied easily,
coded according to purpose such as subject, time period, or geographic
area and easily sorted into sub lists.
I suggest that your group identify some subjects that should have
highest priority (example, businesses, or houses, or notables, or
community activities, or families).The wider the net the more work
keeping an inventory up to date. Photos intrigue me so I add scans of
everything from turtles to what I can find on our former governor who
served in the 1870s.
How much further you go in setting up an inventory depends on factors
such as:
a.*The number of scans in your collection*.This is affected by what time
periods you want to include and how many members take or diligently
search out photos to be scanned. ExampleIf your HS’s focus is primarily
in the 1800s where there are few photos available, a simple listing may
do. If you are collecting current photos from local Facebook pages you
may quickly acquire hundreds of scans and need a more complex system.
Because I believe all local history, from today back to the glacier,
needs to be covered, our image collection has now passed 14,000 scans.
b.*How frequently the list will be used and for what purposes*.I post
photos from our image collection on our CGAHS Facebook page daily, have
written about 40 specific topic reports using as many photos as we can
find, and am currently pulling together, in Power Point, series of scans
which tell visual stories about buildings, events, or people. We often
have used photos as backgrounds in exhibits. So I have a complicated
process which results in lists by subjects and one of alphabetized names
of people who appear in the photos. (I’m retired and have time.)
c.*How important your photo/image collection is in the overall
priorities of your HS or whether you have a member or members who really
want to build an imagecollection for your community.*If it is highly
important and you have goals in terms of completing sub-collections
(examples, photos of people who have served in a government, church, or
school positions over the years, or your community’s involvement in WW
II) then you will want a way to create sub lists out of your main
chronological list so you can keep track of what or who you are still
looking for. On the other hand, if you think of the scans as objects
like a dish or tool only to be preserved if photos are given to you,
then using key words in the one sentence phrases and a “Find” command on
the chronological list may do.
d.*Whether you can find people who enjoy doing the work involved in
taking or finding and scanning photos and keeping a complex inventory up
to date. *Some of our members have done some neat focused photo projects
which we have scanned and added to the master list.
*In terms of keeping “hard copies”, t*he folks who started our photo
collection chose to have each photo enlarged to uniform size and a copy
made on card stock. Uniform sizes are easier to store than the variation
one finds in real photographs. The main reason is that information about
what is in the photo was put on the back of the cardboard copy.The card
stock copies were kept in plastic sleeves in binders and were available
in our History Room and at community exhibits for people to look
through.I have continued to have the scans reproduced on card stock. I
type quite a bit of information about the who, what, and why of the
photo content and its context, as well as source and date received, on a
full page label, cut off the individual items and stick the labels on
the back of the card stock copies. Then scan both the back and front so
the photo and info are kept together. The scan of the back has an A
added to the image number so one can quickly see which is which.
Brian, I started a response describing the whole system I use and I will
share that if anyone wants to see it or wants to discuss the role and
importance of photos as records of history-- just contact me by email.
Sara smsteele@wisc.edu <mailto:smsteele@wisc.edu> Cottage Grove Area
Historical Society
On 5/20/2020 6:07 PM, Brian Bigler wrote:
> I have noted the discussion of photo copyrights and related on listserve.
>
> My questions to organizations out there is this: How do you store
> these images? If they are scans and stored on a computer how do you
> plan to retrieve them in the future with the rapid change in
> technology? Already items stored on CDs are a problem and many CDs -
> even archival ones- are short lived. Other computer devices would
> prove to be problematic as well - even off site storage may soon be
> antiquated for future use.
>
> A firm believer in hard copy storage to prevent constant updating of
> equipment I am wondering how many organizations print out quality
> prints for customer and archival use? If so, how do you store them or
> impute them on a database?
>
> Thank you in advance for your answers.
>
> Brian J. Bigler
>
> Volunteer Curator - Mount Horeb Area Historical Society
>