Like many people I have a collection of photographs that need to be scanned if I want to use them online or in other digital projects. Many of the coloured photos taken in the 1960s and 1970s are also beginning to fade and need to be copied now. Our home flatbed scanner has served us well for about 10 years but is now showing its age and scanning is a slow process. I was recently given a Kaiser Baas photo scanner to use when scanning loose photos and single A4 pages. This is a small device that scans images at a resolution of 150, 300 or 600 dpi. It scans colour or black and white items and saves the scanned image as jpg or pdf files. The device is easy to use - plug it in to a power supply, press the On button for a few seconds to turn on the scanner, begin to feed the photo into the device and then press the Scan button. Scanning each image takes only a few seconds and the scanned image is saved on to a SD card in the device. Two protective sleeves come with the unit making it easier to scan smaller items as well as keeping images straight during scanning.
Once the batch of scanning is complete use the USB lead to connect the photo scanner to the computer and then save the scanned images to folders on the computer as required. Scanned images can then be edited, if required, in a photo editor.
The small portable scanner works independently of a computer so would be useful for scanning photographs 'in the field' provided that there is a power supply. For such a project you would need to keep a list of image numbers on a sheet with space for brief information about the scanned image if the photo scanner was used to scan images at places other than at the home base. At the society rooms canning single photographs using a photo scanner could also be a task undertaken by one person while someone else uses the computer for other purposes.
Larger images than A4, images on boards and those in books would still need to be scanned on a flatbed scanner or photographed with a digital camera but a small photo scanner could be a useful tool for scanning single photographs.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
VALA 2012 papers
The papers presented at the VALA 2012 conference held in February are now available online at http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/blog.
VALA looks at the use of information technology in a range of libraries and many of the papers provide useful information about the use of information technology in other collecting organisations as well.
The plenary sessions at the beginning and end of each day provide frequently provided an overview of changes occurring in the information world plus an insight into what may occur in the future.
The two papers about Trove presented on the Tuesday morning I found particularly interesting. Trove: the terrors and triumphs of service based social media is relevant for all collecting organisations wanting to use social media to promote their services- http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-session-2-dellit - while Mining the treasures of Trove provided a different view of the possibilities of technology based research for broad themes - http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-session-2-sherratt.
A number of people I know also recommended the plenary session on the Thursday morning on the Guiness Archive as particularly relevant for family history researchers - http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-plenary-5-roche
I was only able to attend two half day sessions but having the papers available online allows those unable to attend on the day the opportunity to follow what occurred at the conference.
VALA looks at the use of information technology in a range of libraries and many of the papers provide useful information about the use of information technology in other collecting organisations as well.
The plenary sessions at the beginning and end of each day provide frequently provided an overview of changes occurring in the information world plus an insight into what may occur in the future.
The two papers about Trove presented on the Tuesday morning I found particularly interesting. Trove: the terrors and triumphs of service based social media is relevant for all collecting organisations wanting to use social media to promote their services- http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-session-2-dellit - while Mining the treasures of Trove provided a different view of the possibilities of technology based research for broad themes - http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-session-2-sherratt.
A number of people I know also recommended the plenary session on the Thursday morning on the Guiness Archive as particularly relevant for family history researchers - http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-plenary-5-roche
I was only able to attend two half day sessions but having the papers available online allows those unable to attend on the day the opportunity to follow what occurred at the conference.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Presentation software
Presentation software such as PowerPoint is frequently used to provide additional information during information sessions, meetings, seminars etc. however not all presentations are successfully prepared or presented.
Ten bad presentation techniques describes mistakes that can be made when using presentation software.
Further links in the article provide additional information to consider when using presentation software.
Ten bad presentation techniques describes mistakes that can be made when using presentation software.
Further links in the article provide additional information to consider when using presentation software.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Online genealogy research
About.com has recently published a guide - How to find your family history using free web resources - http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/family-search.htm?nl=1 which may be useful for those researching the history of their family.
Easy ways to learn HTML
When designing websites it is useful to have some knowledge of HTML - the code used to construct a webpage.
About.com has a section on Web Design and HTML and has recently prepared a guide Cheap and easy ways to learn HTML - http://webdesign.about.com/od/htmlxhtmltutorials/p/learnhtml.htm?nl=1
About.com has a section on Web Design and HTML and has recently prepared a guide Cheap and easy ways to learn HTML - http://webdesign.about.com/od/htmlxhtmltutorials/p/learnhtml.htm?nl=1
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Old Bailey Project
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey - 1674-1913 - summaries of court cases in the City of London and the County of Middlesex were published regularly until 1913. The transcripts were to provide a true, fair and perfect narrative of the court proceedings. The City of London subsidised the publishing of the proceedings from the end of the eighteenth century. As court proceedings were increasing reported in newspapers the need for a sepaprate publication diminished. These valuable resources have been available online since 2003 at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/.
On 30 June, as part of the Making Public Histories series at the State Library of Victoria, Professor Robert Shoemaker (University of Sheffield) director of the The Old Bailey Proceedings Online Project discussed digital histories as a form of public history. He also looked at what the Project team learned from its users as well as how the media have used the site, in particular the UK BBC series Garrow's Law, now in its second series and the radio program,Voices from the Old Bailey. Shane Carmody (Director of Collections Access State Library of Victoria) discussed how dispersed digital resources are linked in local projects in Victoria.
Placing the Proceedings of the Old Bailey online was only the initial project. Subsequent projects utilising the resources of the proceedings include -
Shane Caromdy spoke about the digitisation projects at the State Library and also the shift from charging for the use of items provided online to making them freely available with users providing acknowledgement to the library.
On 30 June, as part of the Making Public Histories series at the State Library of Victoria, Professor Robert Shoemaker (University of Sheffield) director of the The Old Bailey Proceedings Online Project discussed digital histories as a form of public history. He also looked at what the Project team learned from its users as well as how the media have used the site, in particular the UK BBC series Garrow's Law, now in its second series and the radio program,Voices from the Old Bailey. Shane Carmody (Director of Collections Access State Library of Victoria) discussed how dispersed digital resources are linked in local projects in Victoria.
Placing the Proceedings of the Old Bailey online was only the initial project. Subsequent projects utilising the resources of the proceedings include -
- London Lives, 1690-1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis provides fully searchable access to 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
- Connected Histories: Sources for Building British History, 1500-1900 provides access to eleven major electronic sources in British history
- Locating London's Past: A Georeferencing Tool for Mapping Historical and Archaeological Evidence, 1660-1800 will allow place name data from the Proceedings to be be mapped onto fully rasterised and georeferenced maps
Shane Caromdy spoke about the digitisation projects at the State Library and also the shift from charging for the use of items provided online to making them freely available with users providing acknowledgement to the library.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Google Docs
Recently I have been having trouble with one of my computers so decided to try using Google Docs which I could access from any computer.
If you go to Google - www.google.com.au - and then click the 'more' tab you will find a link to Documents.
Available resource options include Document, Presentation and Spreadsheets.
I have created a number of documents for projects and then printed or downloaded them into Word documents. Google Docs may not have all the features of the latest version of Word but the basic features are there.
For the last History Victoria Support Group seminar day, instead of using PowerPoint, I used the Presentation Resource to create the slides and then saved it to PowerPoint for use on the day as I did not have online access when giving the talk.
Advantages of using Google Docs include being able to access them anywhere there is a connection to the Internet. Documents can be shared with people designated by the creator of the documents.
Google Docs is one of several online tools available for creating documents etc. Such tools are worth investigating especially when working on a number of computers or working on a joint project.
If you go to Google - www.google.com.au - and then click the 'more' tab you will find a link to Documents.
Available resource options include Document, Presentation and Spreadsheets.
I have created a number of documents for projects and then printed or downloaded them into Word documents. Google Docs may not have all the features of the latest version of Word but the basic features are there.
For the last History Victoria Support Group seminar day, instead of using PowerPoint, I used the Presentation Resource to create the slides and then saved it to PowerPoint for use on the day as I did not have online access when giving the talk.
Advantages of using Google Docs include being able to access them anywhere there is a connection to the Internet. Documents can be shared with people designated by the creator of the documents.
Google Docs is one of several online tools available for creating documents etc. Such tools are worth investigating especially when working on a number of computers or working on a joint project.
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