This week was all about working with the camera! Some of the materials we digitize are used as part of the exhibits and exhibitions, whether for online reference materials or exhibition guides. The camera we use is a Nikon D850 and acts as a happy medium between the overhead and flatbed scanners in that it is able to capture full images of items AND can process images with a high level of detail. One of the things that I thought was really interesting was that you can adjust the camera settings for the aperture and shutter speed from the computer to help speed up the process of digitizing items! During my work with the camera, I was also able to use a lighting tent for the first time. There were a lot of tips and tricks to getting the lighting just right for the objects to make sure that we captured all the fine details, but our hard work paid off with some really great pictures!

One of the items we photographed this week was a book that will be used in the new Flora and Fauna exhibition on display at the Lilly Library this Spring. The cover of the book featured really incredible paper marbling.

One of the other benefits of using the camera is that we are able to manipulate the items we’re digitizing to fully capture every aspect of the item. For example, we are not able to capture the spine of books without potentially damaging the item we are working with or the tool that we are using to digitize the material (there was a flatbed scanner that had to be repaired after someone accidentally scratched the glass while trying to scan the side of a matchbox that had sandpaper). By using the camera we are able to safely manipulate the item we are working with and completely remove the risk of damaging the digitization equipment.

My first week of working with the Digitization team is complete! After doing a quick tour of the Lilly library, I learned the basics of how to operate the various scanners that are used to digitize our collection. Larger objects are scanned using the overhead scanner, while smaller objects are typically scanned using a flatbed scanner. While the overhead scanner is able to capture images of large items, it is not able to capture as many pixels per inch (ppi) as the flatbed scanners. This means that we are able to capture a larger, more complete picture of an item, but sacrifice being able to capture the finer details. I worked with the large, overhead scanner to digitize a 1744 softcover book that is part of the Latin American mss. This book is part of a larger collection that we will be working on for the remainder of the semester.

While beautiful, the book was absolutely riddled with worming (holes where insects have eaten through the pages of a book or manuscript). One of the really cool things I discovered while processing this book was that there were several loose pieces of paper that had been inserted into the book after it was completed. The handwriting on most of the loose-leaf inserts did not seem to match the original script in the book, which made me think that they were most likely added by another author.

After I completed scanning the 1744 book, I started scanning some of the photographs from the Orson Welles collection. These images had to be scanned using the flatbed scanners, since the finer details of the photographs were important (and the largest size photograph that was in the folder I scanned was approximately 8×10, so all items were easily captured with a single scan). The photos I scanned were from a trip that Orson Welles took to South America, and featured several storefronts, people in traditional clothing, and pastoral scenes.

One of the things I discovered while working with the scanners was that the final processing time of the smaller images typically takes longer than the final exporting time of the larger items. For example, the whole of the 1744 book (over 530 pages) took about 3 or 4 minutes to fully export after it had been scanned but the largest photograph took 5-8 minutes to process and save to our drive. Initially I thought the difference in processing time was strange, but it makes sense that is the case given that the flatbed scanner has substantially more ppi on average than the overhead scanner.

I really enjoyed my first week with the Lilly Library Digitization team and am looking forward to continuing to work with them! Next up: Camera work!

Welcome to my brand new blog! I’ll be completing an internship with the IU Lilly Library’s Digitization team this semester, so check back here for regular updates on all the fun and interesting things I experience.

For a quick introduction: Hello, I’m Katie! I’m a second-year MLS student specializing in Rare Books. I also work full-time for the IU Libraries and have 2 kids. I’m looking forward to learning more of the technical aspects of librarianship and more about the processes and procedures used in digitization!