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Re: BEST METHOD(S) FOR PRESERVING HISTORICAL PHOTOS



Whenever you have the money, may I suggest *both* digitizing and negatives? For the following reasons:

Digitizing photos, given rapidly changing technology and compression, may not be the best way to preserve their content. However, it is a very good way to access them and it helps preserve them in the sense that they only have to be handled once, by the scanner, and not again and again by archivists and patrons. Scanning and placing the images onto a CD and/or a hard drive or the most convenient digital format available to you will make access easier for you and patrons and also easier on the photos, that can then be put away where it's cold, dark and properly dry, and left there until reformatting is necessary. Be sure, if you digitize, to place images onto a 2nd medium--whether it be CD, zip, remote hard drive or photo CD--that is *not* at the same location as the physical photos or the ordinarily accessed medium. (A more preservation-based solution, by the way, is to digitize a negative.)

Getting negatives may be hard to do given the current rapid switch to digitizing by photo establishments. It has been often argued on this list and others that media that can be accessed by light alone is the best long-term solution to preservation quandaries. Again, separate the negatives from the originals, get a good print. If you can also digitize the same photos of which you get negatives, compare the print you get at that time with the original. If you have a good photographer you may find that the print will give you a better digital image than the original. You can then choose whether to expose the original to more light by scanning it, or put it away and scan the print. (Some "original" prints, for instance, may become yellow or faded over time. A good photographer can compensate for this, which is why establishments are becoming digital, because the process of correcting a photograph is now digital.) If you can find a photo establishment that does both digital and negative work, you might be able to get a package deal?

These are just my personal opinions, but they rely on *what I have understood* from a lot of similar discussions on this list and others, and with photography experts. I hope I'm not misrepresenting expert opinion too badly.
Arel
Arel Lucas
Tobacco Control Archives
Library and Center for Knowledge Management
University of California San Francisco
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/
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At 08:56 AM 4/25/2002 -0700, larry hlavsa wrote:

I am involved in the formation of an historical society in my small California town. We only started in March 2002 but already it s becoming clear that we may get more photos in the next few months than we re prepared to deal with. Also, some families are willing for us to copy their photos but don t want to give up the originals. We want to preserve these photos using whatever method is currently state of the art.

Here s my QUESTION:

1) When preserving historical photos should we digitize them at the highest resolution possible?; or
2)       Should we photograph the photographs and get a negative (2 ¼ x 2 ¼?)?

We want to start doing this the right way so any comments on current practices will be helpful.

Thanks!

Larry

P.S. We ll be contacting the California Historical Society and others but I always like to get the opinions of practitioners as well.

Larry Hlavsa, Director
St. Helena Public Library / Napa Valley Wine Library
1492 Library Lane
St. Helena, CA 94574
PH: 707-967-2805
FX: 707-963-5264
EMAIL: <mailto:larry@shpl.org>larry@shpl.org

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