Gerry Stoner
Your historical society or library might want to host an open house so that people can bring in historic photographs and have them digitally scanned. As payoff for these people, you can offer them a high resolution scan to be held at the historical society to insure against loss or damage of the original, and a high resolution photograph and electronic file of their documents for giving to their friends and relations.
Objective:
to set up the hardware for a town's historic scanning party
Scanners are relatively inexpensive: a letter-sized scanner capable of 1200 dpi resolution is often less than $100, and an 11 " x 18" scanner is about $150. For any serious work in local history, a scanner is a must. If you need to buy a scanner, check with your preferred computer store or call MacConnection (800-800-2222) or PCConnection (800-800-5555).
Hooking up a scanner
Nearly all flatbed scanners use a USB cable: the scanner will have a square USB connection, and the computer has the common flat end USB.
Plug the cable into the scanner and the other end into the computer. Naturally, plug the scanner electrically into an outlet.
- scan any item or photo with a dimension of 8 inches or larger at 400 dpi
- scan any item or photo with a dimension between 5 and 8 inches at 800 dpi
- scan any item or photo with a dimension of less than 5 inches at 1200 dpi