What is Digital Archiving?

Is "Digital Archiving" becoming the big buzz phrase for genealogical societies, libraries and other organizations?  It is with TSGS and many other organizations everywhere!  Our genealogical society has been talking about this subject for several years now, but have not done much more than say we need to talk about it.

Our society is very fortunate to have an experienced, knowledgeable person in the computer/electronic/media field who works with data storage.  University of Southern Indiana Retired Professor Larry Goss has been trying to get us more into the electronic age.  Larry has been digitally archiving past issues of our members quarterly journal, The Tri-State Packet, for several years now.  He is wanting the society to consider other alternatives to archiving these quarterlies.

It is amazing how many other groups are going to digital newsletters and quarterlies.  But, actually, it should not be all that amazing since going digital will reduce storage space and costs.  With all of the personal media electronic devices like smart phones, Kindles, Ipads, etc.  Digital data is the way everything will be available and at our fingertips in seconds.  A 20-yr-old is working with me.  He has this cool app on his Droid that when placed near the speaker of the truck radio, it will tell him all about a song that is playing: name, artist, album, recording date and more!  He can type in a tree or insect name and in a second have a photo of it and just everything you could ever want to know about an Elm tree or a June Bug!

This very morning, Dick Eastman has on his blog Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter (EOGN) a good article on going paperless with digital archiving.  He has a link to another very good article that both are very good for us less knowledgeable and possibly a little to a lot electronically challenged.  I suggest everyone should read both of these short articles to reduce storage of paper and make retrieval so much easier & faster.  Here are the links to the two articles:

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/09/digital-scanning-system-replaces-paper-frees-up-space.html

http://digitalrv.rvtravel.com/2012/09/digital-scanning-system-vamooses-paper.html

Let us know what you think about "Digital Archiving."

- Written by JGWest

ENGINEER'S REPORT – Tech Info

 

This morning, as I do each morning, I checked my email and the many newsletters and other formats of info that comes in my email inbox hourly.  I found this very interesting new advancement in "electronic genealogy."  It has been called "Digitising the Deceased!"  This comes from Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter EOGN

 

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/09/digitising-the-deceased.html

"Radio4 in the UK has an interesting report about placing QR Codes on tombstones. (See the picture to the right for a typical QR code.) Edward Stourton of the Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, recently interviewed Steven Nimmo, a funeral director from Dorset, to find out how digital 'quick response' codes are being placed on gravestones. Scanning the code with a smart phone directs people to a webpage where they can find a wealth of information about the deceased.

You can listen to the audio from the radio programme at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00z02tn."

 

This audio link is worth about 2.42 minutes of listening... it is a really cool way to remember love ones.  It is similar to the "Memorial Madallions" we heard about in the last few years.  Technology and genealogy marches on!

 

- Compiled by Indiana Bones

ENGINEER'S Report - Tech Info

This new piece of technology is being used by the Evansville Public Library system to digitalize books & records.

BookDrive Pro

The Ultimate Solution For Mass Digitization.

* Scan anything up to A2 size.
* Natively captures flat images so there is no need for page curvature correction software.
* Provides the user with the ability to scan 1,000 pages per hour.
* Scan easily without pushing buttons with Auto Capture Switch.
* Advanced lighting system produces well, evenly lit images.
* Supports any Canon SLR camera so the product will never become obsolete - if your needs change or if newer better cameras are introduced just upgrade your cameras while keeping your scanning platform and software package.

BookDrive Pro is the most powerful model of the successful BookDrive line of scanners. BookDrive solution solves typical problems found in overhead scanners: page curvature, damage to book spine, and low productivity. Learn more at the Atiz web page: http://pro.atiz.com/

-Submitted by Chris Myers