suckow

Digitization is one of the prime reasons I am taking this class, the other being web design, and so the reading was quite interesting. However, there were a few points it missed and I wanted to bring up. To get the negative out of the way, an issue with digitizing documents, at least in terms of page scanning, is illegitability. One needs to be careful to check that after scanning the document can be read. Sometimes in scans of older typed manuscripts, the ink has bled to the point where the letters cannot be discerned even under large magnification. Whether this is a problem of the scan or an illegible original document, I do not know, but it is something to watch out for when doing a digitization project.

Moving on to images, the reading discussed a few different means of presenting digital images such as compressed TIFFs or providing only higher res images on request, see http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/digitizing/5.php. Another way to present images is to place low res or thumbnail images on a main page and then text links to higher res versions of the images. This allows one to have a faster loading main images page while at the same time providing higher res images on the site. It means a bit more effort in page design as each higher res version must be given a page, but over the long haul it allows more people to access and download the higher res versions without requiring the extra work for the webmaster of answering requests.

Lastly, sound. There is a means of transferring sound on the cheap not mentioned in the reading. All one needs is obtain a media capture program, there are excellent freeware options available for download off the Net. Then hook the player into the mic input of a computer, using a male-male connector that fits the jacks on the player and the mic input, and play the sound media. The sound does lose a little quality in the transition, but if you need it done period and have not got the money for other options, it is quite workable. Cost is just that of the player and the connector (which is easy to find in stores that sell audio equipment and costs about $10). I found all this out while working on converting my tape collection to mp3s, not for p2p filesharing, but so I keep all the music and can quit worrying that the walkman is going to eat something irreplacable.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2006 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.