Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures and tables
- Introduction
- 1 Digitization in the context of collection management
- 2 Before you digitize: resources, suppliers and surrogates
- 3 The digital image Ross Spencer
- 4 The process of selection
- 5 Surveying collections
- 6 Equipment for image capture
- 7 Preparation of document formats and fastenings
- 8 Preparation of damaged documents
- 9 Setting up the imaging operation
- Conclusion
- Further reading
- Index
5 - Surveying collections
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures and tables
- Introduction
- 1 Digitization in the context of collection management
- 2 Before you digitize: resources, suppliers and surrogates
- 3 The digital image Ross Spencer
- 4 The process of selection
- 5 Surveying collections
- 6 Equipment for image capture
- 7 Preparation of document formats and fastenings
- 8 Preparation of damaged documents
- 9 Setting up the imaging operation
- Conclusion
- Further reading
- Index
Summary
Introduction
As explored in Chapter 4 ‘The process of selection’, there are numerous physical aspects of a collection that will have a direct impact on the image capture operation. An initial spot check assessment will go some way towards identifying what some of the issues may be, but a more thorough investigation is needed in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the physical nature of the collection. A collection survey is therefore an essential element of most digitization projects and should not be seen as an optional extra.
Why do a survey?
Many of the physical attributes of the documents will affect the choice of imaging equipment and so the sensible approach is to assess the documents before deciding on the most appropriate equipment. An obvious example is the need to ensure that the equipment is large enough to accommodate the documents. If the documents are different sizes then it may be economical to use different scanners for different sized documents – the survey could be used to identify what proportion of documents are larger or smaller, and also to establish the distribution of the different sizes. Chapter 6 ‘Equipment for image capture’ examines what types of equipment are compatible with different document formats.
Variations within a collection are often a cause for concern for imaging operations. Historic documents can be incredibly diverse and variations mean that image capture can be slow and arduous if the camera operator has to frequently adjust settings to capture different sizes or colours of paper. Handling diverse material is also slower. When handling consistent sheets of the same size and weight, the operator becomes accustomed to the behaviour of the material and gets into a routine – with a result that the process becomes faster. Diverse material may require some decision-making because different documents may need to be processed differently; for example, some may have fastenings that need to be removed, or different documents may need to be handled differently. This will have the effect of slowing down the operation.
If the image capture is outsourced to a commercial supplier they will need to set competitive image capture rates so that the overall operation is financially viable.
- Type
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- Information
- Preparing Collections for Digitization , pp. 63 - 90Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2010