>
> >
> > Hi everyone!
> >
> > First, a brief introduction about myself:
> >
> > I am a recent graduate with a master's degree in Library and Information
> > Studies (MISt). I have been volunteering for ARMA Toronto Chapter and
> have
> > worked full time as RM Analyst with Ontario Provincial Services, have
> > recently moved to a private sector multinational organization, I am based
> in
> > Toronto. I see the valuable contributions especially by Peter and other
> > worthy learned professionals.
> >
> > I have a question regarding scanning, is there a scanning standard or
> what
> > are the best practices to be considered while scanning records.
> >
> > 1. Image resolution should be 300 dpi or 400 dpi?
> >
> > 2. What is the acceptable format either PDF, PDF/a or TIP as the records
> > management gold standard, either North America wide or within the
> Canadian
> > Jurisdictions.
> >
> > Thanks for your kind review and input.
> >
> >
>

There are consideration other than if the records being scanned have
archival value what resolution to scan them at.

No information was provided about the source materials- how old they are,
what type of substrate they're on, if they are handwritten or typed, if they
include multi-part forms on colored paper, how worn/used the materials are,
if there are two-sided sheets mixed in the materials or if there are any
NCR-type originals or odd sized things, such as legal sized or receipts/note
pages.

The best course of action is to assess the source materials an take a
representative sample set, then image those at a variety of resolutions and
view the resultant images.  These should be viewed on the scanning
workstations AND on workstations where the user population would see them.
Not all video cards and monitors are the same, so the most important thing
is to be sure the USERS can see what you end up with.  You can also gauge
the file sizes for images scanned at the various resolutions and make a
better estimate of the volume of storage it will require to store the
resultant content at different resolutions.  Our tests were 75, 150, 300,
600 and 800 dpi.

Another consideration in addition to 'can users see the images?' and 'how
much storage will it take?'... is the existing network able to easily handle
the load of multiple users requesting images simultaneously based on the
size of the files?  These files could impact network performance and there
may be a need to consider an upgrade to either storage or network
configurations.

You had asked about file formats- when we went through a major scanning
project, we scanned to TIFF, then converted to PDF so users would access PDF
files.  BUT, we saved the TIFF images as a deep backup because the quality
of those images was a bit higher.  This way, if the platters where the PDF
images were written (and their backups) were ever to be damaged, we could
recreate the PDFs without having to re-scan the source documents.  YES... we
saved the source documents and entered into the metadata a location for
where to find them because of what the documents were and the required
retention period being anywhere from 75 to 125 years.

The purpose of the project was to make electronic images available for use
and reference and avoid the need to continually handle the physical
documents, further damaging them.  It also allowed for multiple users (based
on user privileges) to view them simultaneously from disparate locations and
print them if necessary.  All prints are made on a network printer with a
secure interface and onto paper that has an overlay stating "COPY- Not an
Official Record" to avoid any concern that it needs to be refiled.

Oh- and the solution for us involved using 150 and 300dpi for the majority
of the clean originals (typewrtitten on white paper), 300 and 600dpi for
colored paper and badly worn originals and about 15% were at 800dpi.  Also
about 10% required the generation of a copy prior to scanning because the
source document was so bad.

Larry

-- 
*Lawrence J. Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972*

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