A message I just sent in a wikimediauk-l thread about photographic negative scanners, which I thought might be of general interest to Wikimedia organisations.
tl;dr: an archival-quality negative scanner has potential to be a white elephant* (a donation that is actually a liability), but could be a useful thing that an organisation could use to make very good friends with GLAMs and individuals.
- d.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com Date: 15 February 2014 20:00 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] WMUK slide scanner To: UK Wikimedia mailing list wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
On 15 February 2014 19:52, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:23, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:09, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk wrote:
Change of plan: Thank you, but I've been offered the use of one of these: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/scanner/scoolscan_4000/ by a friend who lives locally.
Oooooooooooooh you lucky bugger. That's the level of archival-quality piece of kit we could do with for WMUK. Though it would have to live in the office.
A nikon product at the WMUK office? Is that wise: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canon_EOS_DSLR_family_(selection).jp...
:-)
Seriously, though: if you want archival quality, the way to go is a CoolScan. Not only would we be able to scan negatives ourselves (though it'd be tied to the office, rather than being a loanable item), we'd be able to make very good friends indeed with GLAMs that have random piles of unscanned negatives.
It'd be nice if someone with a few hundred quid bought a CoolScan, scanned their collection, then donated the kit to WMUK when done with it.
The way it usually goes is: someone buys a CoolScan on eBay, scans their negative collection, sells it to the next person. WMUK would be a suitable end point for such a chain.
The main catch is for it to be *someone else's* problem to make sure a decade-old piece of kit is in usable condition not to be a white elephant - donating something that turns into a liability is helpy rather than helpful. CoolScan IV/4000 use FireWire, V/5000 on use USB ... software and supported OS is an interesting question as well ... III/3000 and earlier do archival-quality scanning, but often have weird hardware requirements. I think the I and II needed their own ISA card. This is the sort of white elephant *not* to inflict on a small charity.
If I had ~£500 to spare I would happily be that person. I'm not though :-)
I'll borrow the Ion (a rather less fragile piece of kit, so borrowable), but if I had access to a CoolScan I'd happily do 'em again.
- d.
I'm surprised not to see any replies to this particular thread. It seems to me to be a "no-brainer" (to use a nonce-word that I hate) that imaging equipment for local wiki organizations in a position to make good use of it to upload free content for the projects should be a high priority for funding at whatever level.
In the next funding cycle, maybe someone should propose a pilot program of allocating $10,000 and making ten $1,000 micro-grants for this purpose, with the application process to include discussion of what or whose free content would be made available to the projects if the equipment were provided.
Newyorkbrad
On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 3:04 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
A message I just sent in a wikimediauk-l thread about photographic negative scanners, which I thought might be of general interest to Wikimedia organisations.
tl;dr: an archival-quality negative scanner has potential to be a white elephant* (a donation that is actually a liability), but could be a useful thing that an organisation could use to make very good friends with GLAMs and individuals.
- d.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com Date: 15 February 2014 20:00 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] WMUK slide scanner To: UK Wikimedia mailing list wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
On 15 February 2014 19:52, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:23, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:09, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk
wrote:
Change of plan: Thank you, but I've been offered the use of one of these: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/scanner/scoolscan_4000/ by a friend who lives locally.
Oooooooooooooh you lucky bugger. That's the level of archival-quality piece of kit we could do with for WMUK. Though it would have to live in the office.
A nikon product at the WMUK office? Is that wise:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canon_EOS_DSLR_family_(selection).jp...
:-)
Seriously, though: if you want archival quality, the way to go is a CoolScan. Not only would we be able to scan negatives ourselves (though it'd be tied to the office, rather than being a loanable item), we'd be able to make very good friends indeed with GLAMs that have random piles of unscanned negatives.
It'd be nice if someone with a few hundred quid bought a CoolScan, scanned their collection, then donated the kit to WMUK when done with it.
The way it usually goes is: someone buys a CoolScan on eBay, scans their negative collection, sells it to the next person. WMUK would be a suitable end point for such a chain.
The main catch is for it to be *someone else's* problem to make sure a decade-old piece of kit is in usable condition not to be a white elephant - donating something that turns into a liability is helpy rather than helpful. CoolScan IV/4000 use FireWire, V/5000 on use USB ... software and supported OS is an interesting question as well ... III/3000 and earlier do archival-quality scanning, but often have weird hardware requirements. I think the I and II needed their own ISA card. This is the sort of white elephant *not* to inflict on a small charity.
If I had ~£500 to spare I would happily be that person. I'm not though :-)
I'll borrow the Ion (a rather less fragile piece of kit, so borrowable), but if I had access to a CoolScan I'd happily do 'em again.
- d.
Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On 19 February 2014 00:34, Newyorkbrad newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
I'm surprised not to see any replies to this particular thread. It seems to me to be a "no-brainer" (to use a nonce-word that I hate) that imaging equipment for local wiki organizations in a position to make good use of it to upload free content for the projects should be a high priority for funding at whatever level.
A new one (with, e.g., a warranty) would be the best idea for an archival-quality scanner. Has WMNY obtained such a device?
- d.
NYB,
Thanks for reminding me - this slipped my mind in amongst my other work. The brief outline I did is at https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Digitisation.
The problem is that digitisation - proper digitisation - is not something that can really be done without employing staff to do it. First there's the scanning, obviously - which is simple enough. IMO the Coolscan is the best for this (for under £5k anyway), but it's difficult to get hold of, and we don't really have the technical skills to maintain it. Tempting though - but we'd need to prove that it was worth the cost.
WMDE did a full review into it and worked out that, with the number of slides that need scanning, it's best (ie most cost-effective) to hire something like a Hasselblad X5 for a day.
The other problem - and it's a big problem - is, as POTW says, the post-processing and indexing. A good scanner will automatically post-process for you (to a degree). And you'll need your own offline database - Commons is not great for actually storing images because they tend to be deleted if you're not careful, and you can't control the categorisation (or indeed, much else - the community controls it)
A few examples from the one we have in our office are at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_generated_with_WMUK_Ion_Fi.... The slides are from a 1970s camera, so they're not amazing to begin with. But it gives you an idea.
Richard Symonds Wikimedia UK 0207 065 0992
Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
On 19 February 2014 00:34, Newyorkbrad newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
I'm surprised not to see any replies to this particular thread. It seems to me to be a "no-brainer" (to use a nonce-word that I hate) that imaging equipment for local wiki organizations in a position to make good use of it to upload free content for the projects should be a high priority for funding at whatever level.
In the next funding cycle, maybe someone should propose a pilot program of allocating $10,000 and making ten $1,000 micro-grants for this purpose, with the application process to include discussion of what or whose free content would be made available to the projects if the equipment were provided.
Newyorkbrad
On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 3:04 PM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
A message I just sent in a wikimediauk-l thread about photographic negative scanners, which I thought might be of general interest to Wikimedia organisations.
tl;dr: an archival-quality negative scanner has potential to be a white elephant* (a donation that is actually a liability), but could be a useful thing that an organisation could use to make very good friends with GLAMs and individuals.
- d.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com Date: 15 February 2014 20:00 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] WMUK slide scanner To: UK Wikimedia mailing list wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org
On 15 February 2014 19:52, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:23, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2014 15:09, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk
wrote:
Change of plan: Thank you, but I've been offered the use of one of these: http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/scanner/scoolscan_4000/ by a friend who lives locally.
Oooooooooooooh you lucky bugger. That's the level of archival-quality piece of kit we could do with for WMUK. Though it would have to live in the office.
A nikon product at the WMUK office? Is that wise:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canon_EOS_DSLR_family_(selection).jp...
:-)
Seriously, though: if you want archival quality, the way to go is a CoolScan. Not only would we be able to scan negatives ourselves (though it'd be tied to the office, rather than being a loanable item), we'd be able to make very good friends indeed with GLAMs that have random piles of unscanned negatives.
It'd be nice if someone with a few hundred quid bought a CoolScan, scanned their collection, then donated the kit to WMUK when done with it.
The way it usually goes is: someone buys a CoolScan on eBay, scans their negative collection, sells it to the next person. WMUK would be a suitable end point for such a chain.
The main catch is for it to be *someone else's* problem to make sure a decade-old piece of kit is in usable condition not to be a white elephant - donating something that turns into a liability is helpy rather than helpful. CoolScan IV/4000 use FireWire, V/5000 on use USB ... software and supported OS is an interesting question as well ... III/3000 and earlier do archival-quality scanning, but often have weird hardware requirements. I think the I and II needed their own ISA card. This is the sort of white elephant *not* to inflict on a small charity.
If I had ~£500 to spare I would happily be that person. I'm not though
:-)
I'll borrow the Ion (a rather less fragile piece of kit, so borrowable), but if I had access to a CoolScan I'd happily do 'em again.
- d.
Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On 19 February 2014 00:34, Newyorkbrad newyorkbrad@gmail.com wrote:
I'm surprised not to see any replies to this particular thread. It seems to me to be a "no-brainer" (to use a nonce-word that I hate) that imaging equipment for local wiki organizations in a position to make good use of it to upload free content for the projects should be a high priority for funding at whatever level.
There are some fairly solid practical problems. Firstly scanning is boring. Trying to get volunteers to do it on a large scale is going to be difficult.
Secondly GLAMS tend to prefer that material handling be limited to professionals or their internal volunteers only
Thirdly the copyright of slides is often messy. If the original photographer has died and they didn't mention copyright in their will any copyrights could well be held by multiple people.
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org