Digitisation

This digitisation program is being carried out to JS Battye Library of WA History and State Library of WA digitisation standards. Masters saved as TIF to recommended minimum of 4800 pixels on the long side of an image. KHS is saving as 5500 pixels on the long side of an image as TIF masters, over and above the Battye Library standards.

Archival digitisation can be broadly categorised into three types of digital objects.

Equipment used for Digitisation

Epson V700 (High Resolution Optical) Scanner

The V700 was donated by the Kununurra Pharmacy in late 2010. This is the same scanner used by the pharmacy's Kodak Shop. It can be used for all types of prints and transparencies, and scans 12 x 35mm slides in one session, to high optical resolutions.

Brother A3 Scanner/Printer

The Brother is used to scan documents over A4 and up to A3 size.

Canon EOS 550D - 18 megapixel Digital SLR Camera

The camera is used for larger documents, like plans and maps and can capture over 5000 pixels wide, The camera is also used for outings, events and museum photography generally. This model can also capture High Definition Audio-Visual (moving) images.

Batch Conversion and Rename

The great FREE software, IrfanView, is used for all image manipulation after scanning, it is also used for batch conversion and rename of whole folders full of images (collections), in a single operation.

Batch (Folder of images) Processing Metadata

IrfanView with another PlugIn is used to also carry out batch operations to embed the IPTC Metadata (Image information like Author, Caption, Keywords, Date Created etc), as separate fields - which can be used by other applications. Once embedded into the JPG Masters, this metadata is passed on to all derivative JPG images. Read more about Metadata in Images

OCR - Optical Character Recognition (Images of text into text)

OCR turns images of text into standard PC text. We also use IrfanView for this with a FREE PlugIn called Kadmos. Text columns in an image are selected in IrfanView, then a menu item "Start OCR.. (PlugIn)" is selected from the "Options" menu. The software soon converts the image to text.

Download IrfanView from the Metadata in Images page.

Dust on Slides

Why is there dust on images from slides? KHS is digitising all archive material as it has come into the archive prior to any major slide cleaning program. Imagine cleaning a slide and losing or damaging that image. This is our preservation insurance. Most dust is blown off the slides, however some slides stored in PVC plastic have "sweated" PVC and the dust onto some slides (The worst looking).

For an interesting archive preservation hint for successful storage of your important documents and papers read more about an archive safe alternative to PVC plastics, in the description for the image in this link. Read about the Rolls Royce & the Volkswagen Methods [Goes to an image on Flickr with this information]

Donate

Would you like to see this continue? Any further donations may help to extend this program.

DGR

KHS has been endorsed by the ATO as a "Deductible Gift Recipient", since 2000, meaning all donations of cash or property are fully tax deductible.

Become a KHS Member

You can also help by joining KHS as a member. KHS has a form that you can type into, email back, and use a direct deposit to pay for membership.

See www.kununurra.org.au/home/khs-membership-forms