the mad dash of digitization
Something as simple as setting up a slide scanner becomes a mad dash for other required pieces: an old 2GB SD card, a mini (not micro!) USB cable, the correct drivers to connect it to the computer, etcetera, leaving us digging in our various defunct tech pools in the library. SD cards are salvaged from old digital cameras, mini-USB cables are dug out of a snakish pile of cords stashed in old projector’s carrying case, and drivers and how-to guides are redirects to once-flashy now flimsy HTML sites on Bing (yes, thatBing). We archivists often find ourselves in the sticky situation of needing to digitize objects from much older source materials, but this is not always as easy or as straightforward as it sounds. With the swift evolution of technology, many formats are left forgotten, and the hardware and software required to move them into the modern age is rapidly dated and disappearing.
This week, our Digital Archivist and I combined our dashing efforts to test out some old slide scanning hardware. We selected a few vacation photos from the Paul Trepman Fonds and recorded the fascinating (and tediously slow) process of digitizing these incredible 35 mm photographic slides.
For many people, this technology still feels relevant—most of their childhood memories are documented on 35mm. Photographic slides, popularized by Kodak in 1935, became a favored format due to their compact size and high-quality color reproduction, especially with Kodachrome film. In the 1960s, photos were cut and individually mounted creating slides which were commonly used for projection, allowing groups to view photos together. However, with the rise of digital cameras and online sharing, slides have largely fallen out of use, although some photographers continued to favor them for their image quality.
Today, many collectors’ primary concerns are the rapid degradation of these materials as well as their guaranteed accessibility, and so the digitization dash continues. If you have memories stored on older formats at home, don’t forget to check in on them—and maybe digitize one or two in your free time!
