ECHOES was initially conceived as a digital demonstration project, for both our participating libraries as well as ourselves. We wanted to see if we could create a great final product with the staff and equipment at hand. We were interested in promotion of, not the preservation of, the objects on view from the collections that make up ECHOES. In terms of the actual scanning and image processing our goal was simplicity. We therefore thought in terms of the ECHOES website being the final product. The image sizes and formats (JPEG) as well as the storage medium (CD-ROM), were picked for their widespread use and compatibility.

We used equipment and software already available to us, and streamlined the workflow as much as possible by limiting the number of images to be scanned from each participants and encouraging participants to limit their objects to black & white photographs 8" x 10" or smaller. Needless to say there were exceptions to this: oversize topographic maps; daguerreotypes; color postcards; campaign buttons; and a commemorative teacup saucer. We had limited access to an oversize scanner as well as digital cameras, so we were able to digitize items not appropriate for our flatbed scanner.

Considering the bulk of our work was done using a three-year old consumer flatbed scanner and a mid-range computer we were extraordinarily pleased with our results. We hope that this website and the final products you see are proof that digitizing a collection is not only possible with modest equipment, but that the results can be very impressive.

The following are the specifications and workflow for vast majority of objects we dealt with:

Standard Workflow

1. Original Black & white 8"x10" photograph from participating library/archive.
2. Scanned on a letter-size flatbed scanner at 1200dpi (600dpi emulation, software enhanced to 1200dpi).
3. Using image-processing software, image immediately converted image to TIFF format, no other image manipulations.
4. TIFF image resized to one of three standard pixel widths. Saved in JPEG format three times, once for each standard width and in three different JPEG compression ratios (dependent on image sizes).
5. Image-processing software may have been used on JPEG images to crop image, adjust brightness, contrast, sharpness, remove erroneous markings.
6. Original TIFF images and resized and edited JPEG images, burned to at least one CD-R disc using ISO9660 standard. Discs burned from original TIFF and JPEG images twice, one copy for participating library, one copy kept at NMRLS.

Hardware

Flatbed Scanner: Visioneer PaperPort OneTouch
Computer: Dell Optiplex 400, 1.3GHz Pentium IV, 256RAM, 16MB graphics card, 20GB Hard Drive, CD-ROM read-write drive, Windows98 Second Edition

Scanning resolution (standard):

1200dpi (interpolated resolution/software enhanced from 600dpi)
Black & White images also scanned at 8-bit grayscale

CD-ROM Specifications

Software: Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02
CD-R Discs: TDK CD-R
File format: ISO 9660 (for cross-platform compatibility)

Imaging Software

JASC Paintshop Pro 7.04
Visioneer PaperPort 5.3.1 (Scan Manager)

JPEG Image standards

Standard image width (pixel): 1000 / 500 / 150 (thumbnail)
JPEG compression was dependant on image size: 1000 (10%) / 500 (30%) / 150 (%50)