Scan Resolutions and Photo Preservation and Sharing

A common question among families and historical society volunteers is what resolution should be used for scanning photos and documents for archiving and sharing.

As you might expect, the simplest answer is that it depends. It primarily depends upon the size of the original to be scanned and the anticipated size of prints that may be made.

When considering digital scan and print resolution, our primary interest is pixels per inch (ppi) that we capture in the scan and then have available to spread over a selected print size. Generally, we will want to capture more pixel resolution as the size of the original decreases and/or the size of the intended print increases. At LocalArchiver.com, there are several articles on scanning and printing that are intended to clarify how these activities relate.

The human eye is pressed to discern print quality differences at greater than 300 ppi and quality images can be printed at resolutions well below this. In the LocalArchiver.com article on printing, I compare the minimum resolution requirements for several major online printers. This is informative as these resolutions have been found to be satisfactory to a vast majority of their customers.

If you are scanning a 4 x 6 print so that you can then print several additional 4 x 6 prints to distribute to family, a scan at 300 ppi should be plenty of resolution. This is the case as 300 ppi is described as professional print quality. If you believe that you may someday desire to print an enlargement, you may wish to capture more pixels in your scan, perhaps 600 ppi. This would allow you to spread captured pixels on a print size that is twice the size of the original and still maintain a print resolution of 300 ppi.

In articles at LocalArchiver.com, the relationships between pixel capture by scanning and printing pixel needs are developed further. In general, LocalArchiver.com recommends that families and historical societies routinely scan at 600 ppi to maintain flexibility with images into the future while not generating excessively large image files. It is also recommended that the jpeg format at high quality / low compression be the digital file format of choice.

Many local photo labs are acquiring equipment to bulk scan prints. However, many are restricting their scans to 300 ppi and then save the image files at less than high quality compression. This is the case since higher resolution scans require more operator and equipment time, and more compression / lower quality files save storage space on the lab's equipment.

Professional services focused entirely on scanning will typically offer a choice of resolutions and will provide high quality files of the images. ScanDigital is such a service, and is a good choice for a family or historical society that is seeking consistent high quality scanning. Clearly there is an opportunity to take advantage of quantity discounts with such a service. However, there is no requirement to have an entire collection scanned at the same time, and giving such a service a try may represent a first and important step toward better preserving your photos and opening many additional opportunities to share your images once in digital format.

Historical & Genealogical Society Projects and Service-Learning

Many historical and genealogical societies have some level of interaction with local schools. However, most have an opportunity to become more creative by exploring additional ways to interact with teachers and their students.

I recently stumbled upon a website for the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. This website contains many thought provoking suggestions about how to start or strengthen a historical or genealogical society's project relationship with local schools. Several historical preservation projects are described, and many resource links are provided.

The basic concept is to match historical society needs with learning opportunities for students. A few of the projects described are collecting and documenting oral histories, researching important community history topics, documenting and preserving artifacts, and scanning / captioning / publishing historical images in a local paper. The possibilities are limited only by a society's imagination.

These projects provide students with a practical and real world learning experience, the students are providing a service to the community, the historical society has found additional resources to advance its preservation and sharing objectives, and the society has hopefully enthused the next generation of society volunteers and leaders.

A good place to start a browse of the website is on a page titled Service- Learning & Historic Preservation: Benefits. Additional tabs below the title provide examples, resources, and first steps.

If your historical or genealogical society has an example of a successful project partnering experience with a school, please share it in a comment.

Photo Preservation and Sharing Life's Little Pleasures

When we consider why photos in our family or community image collections are so important and cherished, a common thread appears.

Most family photo images are captured to document life's milestones, celebrations, social gatherings, and accomplishments. These include births, birthdays, graduations, holidays, family gatherings, vacations, and special recognitions.

In the case of community historical societies, the most treasured images are often of "simpler times". This historical record of a community at work and play might include images of local industry, community organizations, fairs, dances, and local recreational interests.

These images taken together represent a photographic history of family and community. Family, historical society, and genealogical society collections speak volumes about our family and community past. These images form a foundation of our collective memories and identities.

As we approach the summer season, we anticipate parades, family vacations, reunions, visits from distant relatives, picnics, and many other fair weather activities. A good time to sample life's little pleasures with family and community.

Be sure to keep a camera close at hand to preserve and share memories of these simple pleasures, just as our ancestors did.

Discover more about photo and document preservation and sharing at LocalArchiver.com.

Photo Preservation and Sharing - Any Step is a Good Step

Families and volunteer dependent community historical societies can easily become overwhelmed with the range of photo and document image preservation and sharing possibilities. Technology and the Internet have fostered many competitive services all willing to help you store, preserve, and showcase photo and document collections.

At the same time, professional curators and archivists are scrambling to keep up with the growing volume of materials to preserve, and the setting of standards that will make it possible to globally share all of this information.

Professionals who are being paid to find ways to connect their collection to a global network of libraries and museums must be mindful of the avalanche of information. Non-professionals are often simply blinded by this volume of information about what can and should be done.

Non-professionals simply do not have the time, money, tools, or training to undertake preservation projects in the same way as paid professionals in a library or museum preservation department.

Therefore, families and community historical society volunteers should become comfortable that any step toward preserving and sharing photos or documents in their collections is a good step.

Volunteers and families can accomplish much by starting small and taking modest steps by using inexpensive and readily available services to preserve and share their most treasured images. A worthy objective may be to digitize and index an entire collection. However, simply finding 25 or so treasured family or community images and sharing them with a broader audience on a free share site will provide meaningful enjoyment to all involved.

Increased Image Sharing Can Increase Community Support

Public display of the image treasures held by a community historical or genealogical society is an easy way to increase the level of community support for a society's activities. If photos, documents, and other images are only viewable in a society's museum or archives, it is likely that many in the broader community have only a vague notion about the society's preservation activities.

With technology available today, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to share collection images with a broader community by placing some images online or by putting some image prints on display around town.

If a society has a website, it is simple to add an image gallery. If a society does not have a website, free and easy share sites can be built quickly to gain a web presence, and these can be expanded over time. A society can then create a full blown website when appropriate.

A few scans of images owned by the society or in the public domain is all that is needed to be able to share images with the broader community.

Once digital images are available, it is also an easy and logical step to make prints and image gift items available as a fundraising activity to support ongoing projects.

Greater display of historically interesting community images is likely to increase awareness of society activities, bolster enthusiasm about a community's rich history, and this can ultimately lead to expanded volunteer and financial support.

For more thoughts and suggestions, visit the "Sharing" section and "Projects for Local Historical Societies" at LocalArchiver.com.

Professional Preservation Standards and Community Historical Societies

There is little argument that some digitization and collection description standards are needed in order to effectively share the world's library and museum collections on the web.

To satisfy a global collection sharing goal, relatively complicated and costly cataloguing systems are being advocated by library, museum, and archiving professionals. The professional side of the debate suggests that it should be done once, and done to professional standards.

On the other side of the debate, resource constrained and volunteer managed community historical and genealogical societies often do not have the expertise or funding to accomplish what salaried professionals are advocating as standards.

Therefore, many community historical and genealogical societies may be left to design their own approach and standards for collection preservation and sharing. It may be appropriately decided that the typical vintage photo in a community historical society collection does not need to be scanned at the same resolution, and described in the same detail as an item in the scanning department of the Smithsonian.

The LocalArchiver would suggest that moving ahead with some level of digital preservation and sharing is more important than hoping to someday digitize a collection to professional standards. In the meantime, originals will still be properly stored with archival quality materials.

At a minimum, community societies can select some of their best photo and document images and share these with their local community through online galleries. Placing photo and document images on a website or share site is within the ability of many volunteers. For step by step guidance and discussion of alternative approaches, visit LocalArchiver.com.

Historical Society Projects With Schools

A previously written LocalArchiver.com article suggested some ways to partner with local schools. See Historical Society Educational Programs for the Local Community.

I just ran across a History Channel sponsored grant program called "Save Our History". The list of 2008/2009 grant recipients and descriptions of their projects makes for some interesting reading. Most are collaborations between community historical societies and local school systems.

The descriptions are probably useful in expanding the list of ideas about how a community historical or genealogical society might collaborate with local schools.

Organizing Family Photos

As I poke around the Internet, I see plenty of advice on how to organize older photo prints. Clearly, this is a personal decision and any step that helps you locate a picture and improves storage/organization is useful. Common suggestions are to place the prints in archival quality storage containers by date or to organize the prints in albums or scrapbooks. Fine suggestions and viable alternatives.

However, if you want to supercharge your ability to preserve, locate, and share images, digitizing the prints by scanning before properly storing them will increase your near and long term flexibility tremendously. You do not necessarily need to scan the prints yourself as there are professional scanning services that can do the job for you at a reasaonable price.

With older prints available as digital images, you can consolidate your image collection with your more recent photos, which you likely already have in digital format.

Now the fun begins. As online image services continue to expand and become easier to use, you can accomplish many satisfying and creative projects easily and inexpensively.

• Upload some of the digital images to a free online album so that extended family members can order prints or gift items of the images.


• Create a free family share site for family members to share images, schedules, ideas, favorite links, genealogical updates, recipes, etc.


• Upload some themed images and add captions and text to create a photo book of a family trip or a portion of family history to mark a significant birthday.


• Take those digital images and organize them using software like Photoshop Elements. With such software, you can create your own album categories and searchable keywords or "tags". Now you have a searchable digital image library and you are able to find all photos of uncle Pete simply by typing Pete into the search field. You can also find all photos in a given category such as "ancestors", simply by clicking on the category name.

Yes, there is a cost in having photos scanned professionally or in time to do it yourself. However, those old prints are probably one of the most valuable things you own. If you are planning to organize your older prints, the added step of digitizing them is one that will provide you many aditional ways to share the images in the future.

For detailed guides on how to scan, organize, and share family photo and document images, pay a visit to LocalArchiver.com.

Genealogical & Historical Societies - Common Interests

It is interesting to explore the websites of organizations which have titled themselves as either genealogical societies or historical societies. Such titles often distinguish the emphasis of their activities. However, many of their objectives and interests are similar.

Although some genealogical societies limit their activities to helping individuals trace family lineages, many move beyond the family tree to family history. Once a society includes family history in its objectives, it is difficult to ignore how community history and family history become a common interest.

Sense of place, sense of community, and sense of personal identity are clearly related. The character, values, and legacy of many of our ancestors was very much shaped by the history of the communities in which they lived and raised there families.

For these reasons, many members of community historical societies have an interest in family genealogy projects, and many members of genealogical societies have a strong interest in community history.

It should not be a surprise that the mission statements and projects of many genealogical societies and historical societies reflect this common interest in family and community history.

Therefore, LocalArchiver's guides to preserving and sharing family and historical society photo and document collections are also guides to preserving and sharing family and community histories. For more color, see the LocalArchiver.com article on The Importance of Preserving Historical Photos and Documents.

Family Photos - Share Sites are a Great Way to Start Sharing

I recently spent some time at Shutterfly to learn more about their free share site service. I was so impressed with the ease and flexibility of their template that I decided to create a sample family share site so that visitors to LocalArchiver.com could better visualize how they might benefit from creating one of their own. No web design experience is needed, and Shutterfly has made it easy and relatively intuitive to build a very customizable share site.

These share sites are much more than a place to park some photos for sharing. The many useful and powerful features will allow you to be very creative in customizing the share site for your own interests and needs.

Features can be useful to share images, thoughts, schedules, favorite links, and much more among members of many types of communities. These might include extended families, youth sports teams, and special interest clubs and organizations.

Want to post thoughts or articles and allow community member comments? Might it be useful to see current weather at multiple locations? Would a community benefit by sharing a handy list of favorite and relevant web links? Could a youth sports team roster or organization membership list be useful? Might a detailed calendar of events or project tracking be useful to an organization?

A Shutterfly share site may be just the thing for your family or organization. Learn more and access the sample family website by reading LocalArchiver's article on Building a Shutterfly Family Share Site.

Historical Society Membership - Encouraging Broader Participation

I have observed that many community historical societies appear to attract and cater to a retired population. This is understandable since years of age seem to be tied to the level of interest in personal and community history and heritage. It is also no secret that retirees generally have some additional time to volunteer and pursue their personal interests.

I believe there are many opportunities to expand the interest of young residents of a community in the activities of historical societies, and that this expansion of interest can benefit societies in multiple ways. These benefits include long term membership stability or growth, and the overall level of community support for a society's activities.

I suggest a few thoughts here and welcome comments from readers based on their experiences.

• Many off-season gatherings and presentations are scheduled mid-afternoon on weekdays, an inconvenient time for non-retirees. Perhaps substituting or adding a session at a more available time for working adults or teens would attract a broader audience.
• Developing a web presence and providing image galleries can be expected to expand awareness about society activities, and likely increase the overall level of community interest.
• Among the projects for societies described at LocalArchiver.com, there are suggestions for building some bridges to local schools. Any project that includes a conscious effort to get young folks involved in learning about community history can generate some level of additional interest. Project examples might include asking schools for help in developing a logo or web presence design (graphic arts), museum spring cleanup (community volunteer hours), assisting on history class projects (hands on history research), or help with computer cataloguing and indexing of collection images (computer science).