Digital imaging

Some related news and information from Preservation and Conservation
Studies: We're in the (*slow*) process of building an experimental
lab for library/archives digitization.  We're at the neophyte stage,
but the UT-Austin General Libraries and related collections have
developed some excellent projects and have given our conservator and
PA students practical experience. General Libraries projects have
pointed us to the following; readers who aren't already familiar
with the software might be interested in it:

    PhotoImpact
    <URL:http://www.ulead.com/pi/runme.htm>
    (Good for image quality control; less powerful for image
    manipulation, but apparently much faster and easier to master
    than PhotoShop).

    MrSID, from Lizard Technology, a wavelet-based compression
    technology based on  raster images and developed (I think)
    concomitant to the imaging technology being developed at Los
    Alamos labs. This is being used by the Library of Congress
    American Memory project, and solves the problem of tiling for
    large-scale objects.  See
    <URL:http://www.lizardtech.com/www/
        index.pl?var=prod_default&page=products/mrsid/
        mrsid_whatis/index.html>.
    It's incredibly impressive.

Gary Frost is revising the curriculum for his fourth in our series
of book conservation labs to focus on digital technology, scanning
for access, and the relationship of original volumes to online
resources.  Given the increasing emphasis on this technology as a
user service, and the relationship of its economics to traditional
preservation activities in academic research collections, we're
trying to make sure our students are grounded in its fundamentals.
(I wish I wasn't having to learn them at the same time).  If you
have questions, please feel free to call or e-mail.

Karen Motylewski, Director and Senior Lecturer
Conservation and Preservation Studies
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
SZB564/D7000, University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78704-1276
512-471-8290
Fax: 512-471-8285 Fax

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:26
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