manual file types

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue Feb 1 13:29:27 2005

On Tue, 2005-02-01 at 17:52 +0000, Paul Williams wrote:
> Jules Richardson wrote:
> >
> > [bi-level scanning is]
> > horrible for anything source documentation with pictures
> > in it. Quite often I find someone's scanned something without proofing
> > it first and then saved it with bi-level, completely trashing any photos
> > inside :-( It's annoying when it's some hard-to-find document and you
> > not only want the information but the presentation of the original too.
>
> I'm sure it breaks your heart that this hard-to-find document is
> available for free download, in any state.

I didn't say that at all. The people who are hosting documents online
are doing a fantastic job, as are those who are making any kind of
effort at scanning.

I've had mixed results when asking whether better quality copies exist.
Sometimes you're right and they are available; more often than not I
find they aren't though, or the person who has them hosted isn't the
person who scanned them originally. Quite often they don't keep track of
who submitted what, and even when they do - well, contact details don't
stay the same forever.

> What is this "otherwise have been preserved"? I can't speak for anyone
> else who scans documents, but I haven't thrown out any document that
> I've scanned. If mistakes have been made, they could be rescanned at any
> later time.

Collections come and go, and accidents do happen, both to documentation
and people. No, I'm not going to throw out any of the documentation that
I have either (which in some cases is stuff that was never publicly
released) but one of the things I find working for a museum is that a
huge amount of stuff gets thrown out by individuals without a second
thought.

The more common docs are going to be around for years to come, but there
must be others where the number of printed copies left can be counted on
one hand, and it's those which are maybe candidates for more thorough
preservation.

cheers

Jules
Received on Tue Feb 01 2005 - 13:29:27 GMT