Reformatting photographic material

My employer is currently considering digitizing our black and white
photographic collection. I would like some information on what the
best process is? I currently favour creating a black and white
negative, medium format. This B&W negative will then be used to scan
from and kept as an archival backup. I prefer this process instead
of just scanning in an original without creating a negative at all.

Also, am I correct in thinking that the most archival format is
still a black and white negative?

Reina Irmer
Photographer in Charge
State Library of Queensland
P.O.Box 3488
South Brisbane Q 4101 Australia
+61-7-3840 7778
Fax: +61-7-3840 7943

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                 Conservation DistList Instance 10:105
                   Distributed: Friday, May 30, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-105-007
                                  ***