Project Description

In this project, we are a small archive creating a local history project for seventh grade students. We are scanning a collection of photos of local landmarks and putting them on the site Historypin, which integrates them with the modern view. The students will be able to see the locations on a map and "walk" down the street. They can see the overlayed old photos fade into the modern images (courtesy of Google Street View), giving them a clear idea of how the town has changed over time.

Preservation

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Our biggest preservation challenge is that Historypin is a tool made by the not-for-profit company We Are What We Do and Google and it is not known how long it will stay on the web. While we would still have the master files of the photos, we don’t want to lose the descriptions and map layout. We plan on adding the metadata to the master image files. We will also have the descriptions written in a master document.

We will create a plain text xml document of the metadata and descriptions of the photographs in order to kept them together. We could also update the document with the user comments. Screen shots may be a way of preserving the map features.

For the master files we need to be concerned with the scanning and file creation, file format, backing up files, and plans for migration.

According to the Digital Content Creation department at the University of Illinois Library, for the highest confidence in sustaining long term preservation of files we should create a non-compressed tiff file of each image (2010). These files are large and server space needs to be considered.  The Digital Content Creation department also gives these suggestions for scanning photographs that are 8x10 in. or smaller:

Pixel array:

 •4000 pixels across long dimension of image area, excluding mounts and borders

Resolution:

 •Adjust the scan resolution to meet pixel array specifications, based on the format of the original object - approximately 400 PPI for 8x10 in. originals and ranging up to the appropriate resolution to produce the desired size file from smaller originals, approximately 570 PPI for 5x7 in. and 800 PPI for 4 x 5in. or 3.5x5 in. originals.

Bit depth:

 •8-bit grayscale mode for black-and-white, can be produced from a 16-bit grayscale file.

or

 •24-bit RGB mode for color and monochrome (e.g., albumen prints or other historic print processes), can be produced from a 48-bit RGB file.

References:
1) Kruger, Mary and Amy Bennett. "Best Practices for Creating Digital Collections ." University Library: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Digital Content Creation, 11 Aug 2010. http://www.library.illinois.edu/dcc/bestpractices/contents.html
2) Sitts, Maxine K., ed. Handbook for Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation & Access. Andover, MA: Northeast Document Conservation Center, 2000. http://www.nedcc.org/resources/digitalhandbook/dman.pdf

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