National Library of Australia


Museum Victoria image capture project

Project participants: Museum Victoria
Contact officer/s: Rodney Start, Manager Imaging Unit (email rstart@mov.vic.gov.au, phone 03 9669 9951 or fax 03 9639 1090)
Project description: To digitise museum items for use in database access, webpages, CD- ROM and public access. The museum image capture began 7 years ago with analogue images going onto Sony Worm Drive. Plan to provide content for our Web site, enhance collection management system and improve public access to the collection.
URL of site:
URL for project information:
Content: Material digitised: photographs, film, typescript, 3-D objects and paintings.
Digitisation policy and priorities: Organisations does not have a digitisation or online policy. Hi res images of deteriorating photographic images are saved onto CD ROM and will later be printed onto film for archival storage. These film images can then be scanned onto any new system. Approximately 50% of the entire collection is involved in this digitisation project. 10% has already been digitised, 10.5% is planned to be digitised by the end of 1998 and 11% by the end of 1999.
Timetable: July 1990 - ongoing
Budget and funding: Funded internally - $A500,000 - $A1,000,000.
Staff resources: Digitisation process undertaken substantially inhouse. Searchtech was used to transfer 69,533 analogue images from sony worm drive disk to digital format. As new equipment and software become available staff will be trained. A co-ordination position has been established to assist with issues of copyright. Only images with clear copyright approval will be made available for public viewing.
Technical standards: All image files are captured to produce a 6" x 4" image at 300dpi. These TIFF and TARGA files are stored onto CD_ROM for off-line access. JPEG images are then produced from these TIFF/TARGA files to give 72dpi at 640 x 480 pixels. JPEGS are stored onto hard disks for on-line access. Adobe Photoshop is used for capturing. Win-on-cd is used for archiving images onto CD. KE Emu is the database being used. Computer(s): 3 - HP Pentium 120, 32 Mb RAM, 1.2 Gb hard drive, Win95 and 2 - HP Pentium II 266, 64 Mb RAM, 3Gb HD, Win NT; Capturing equipment: Polaroid Sprintscan 35; UMAX PowerLock II Flatbed with transparency adaptor; 3- JVC TK-T300FU FrameGrab cameras; Storage devices: DAT tape for temporary storage. CD-ROM for archival storage. 48 b Netserver with 16 Gb HD for JPEG access. Also a Microtec 4ST Film Scanner, Mac media 100 editing suite, Nikon Super Coolscan 35mm scanner.
Cataloguing and indexing: Most images are of objects which have an existing database record. Images are being stored by collections name and in folders of 1000 image files.
Comments: The lens quality on our JVC Framegrab cameras is not high enough so we enhance the images with photoshop. If high resolution images are required the image is taken onto film and then scanned hi resolution.

Accurate records and methodolgy needs to be put in place from commencement, or else problems will arise as the project grows, ie, backup procedures for image file; multiple copies of object/image file lists. Whatever the calculated project time is, allow an extra 10% for the unexpected computer problems. Dont try to digitise images with a base model computer, (ie the minimum suggested hardware)as the project will take longer and staff are not as productive. Digital images need to be tailored for individual project or institutional requirements. What works for one may not necessarily work for another.

Project managers wishing to update the details of their Australian digitisation projects, should email the changes to alg@nla.gov.au.

Last modified: August 09 2004.