Lesson 5 - Creating Digital Files and Legislation

Digitisation Equipment

Scanning and Photography - Class Group Activities

Refer to these sections of the Digital Collections Toolkit:

http://www.digitalcollections.org.au/toolkit/digitise/scanning

http://www.digitalcollections.org.au/toolkit/digitise/photography

http://www.digitalcollections.org.au/toolkit/prepare/equipment-and-software

In your group research Scanners. Select 2 scanners that will perform this process to the standard outlined in the article. Include:

Brand/Make
Model
Specifications
File Types
Resolutions available
Special Features
Price
What items could you digitise with this equipment

In your table group research cameras. Select 2 cameras that will perform the photography process to the standard outlined in the article. Include:

Brand/Make
Model
Specifications
File Types
Resolutions available
Special Features
Price
What items could you digitise with this equipment

Non-Print based items - Class Group Activity

Audio/Video items

Audio items include

Records
Tapes
CDs

Video Items include

Movie / Super8
Video Tapes BETA and VHS
DVDs

In your group, research devices that can be used to capture/digitise Audio. Include

Brand/Make/Model/Price X 2
Other Hardware required
File types / formats
Resolution / Size (if relevant)
Ease of use
Anything else you think is relevant

In your group, research devices that can be used to capture/digitise Video. Include

Brand/Make/Model/Price X 2
Other Hardware required
File types / formats
Resolution / Size (if relevant)
Ease of use
Anything else you think is relevant

In your group, research and find any companies/businesses that specialise in this type of digitisation?

Software

Digital Images

There are many software applications that can be used to edit photos and other digital images, depending on your budget, skill level, and organisational policies.

At Chisholm, we have access to the full Adobe Creative Suite, but this software is commercial and can get quite pricey. The current version does have a pay by the month subscription option.

Photoshop

This is everyone's go-to commercial software option. It is part of Adobe's Creative Suite and is also available standalone.

There are plenty of tutorials on how to use Photoshop - see LinkedIn Learning or Adobe help

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/tutorials.html

Pixlr

Students who have done any photo editing with me before will know that this is the application that I use when I am working with digital images. Why? There are a few reasons why I like Pixlr. Firstly, it has been nurtured by an industry leader in multimedia, 3D and CAD - Autodesk since 2011 and in 2017 became part of INMAGINE. Secondly, it has a very functional free option. Thirdly, there are heaps of resources available to learn how to use the program.

https://pixlr.com/

Tutorials
This is one of many resources available for Pixlr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9SUZdLtY8

Photo/image editing - Class Activity 1

What is the cost of Photoshop? What file formats can be opened and saved?

What other alternatives can you find? What is the cost and/or licencing requirements of the alternatives? What file formats can be opened and saved?

Photo/image editing - Class Activity 2

Pick a photo and use the scanner/printer to create a digital copy (or the file provided)

Use Pixlr (or your choice of software) to improve the quality of the photo and save it in JPEG format.

Video

Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro is Adobe's Video Editing application. This is installed on Chisholm computers. It is very powerful, but like a lot of video editing tools, there is a decent learning curve involved.

There are plenty of tutorials on how to use Premiere Pro - see LinkedIn Learning or Adobe help

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/premiere-pro/tutorials.html

Open Source

The term "open source" refers to something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible. https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source

Shotcut is one of the easier to use Open Source video editing applications.

https://www.shotcut.org/

https://www.shotcut.org/tutorials/

Here are a few articles that compare open source and free video editing packages.

https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-video-editing-software-premium-free

Video editing - Class Activity 3

What is the cost of Premiere Pro? What file formats can be opened and saved?

What other alternatives can you find? What is the cost and/or licencing requirements of the alternatives? What file formats can be opened and saved?

Audio - Class Activity 4

Adobe's audio application is called Audition. It is part of Adobe's Creative Suite. It allows you to create, mix and edit audio files

https://www.adobe.com/au/products/audition.html

Open Source

In regards to Open Source audio software, the most popular application is Audacity.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

https://www.audacityteam.org/help/documentation/

Here is an article that compares a few open source or free audio editors
https://www.techradar.com/au/news/the-best-free-audio-editor

What is the cost of Adobe Audition? What file formats can be opened and saved?

What other alternatives can you find? What is the cost and/or licencing requirements of the alternatives? What file formats can be opened and saved?

Text-based files (Born Digital)

Text-based files includes documents, spreadsheets, presentations etc. that can be created, edited, printed via an office application.

MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365) is the main commercial office software suite. Each application has its "native" format, but can read and save files in a variety of formats.

In regards to storing text-based files, the PDF format is the recommended option. MS Office applications can read and write PDF files.

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is the application that gives you a whole lot of power when it comes to creating, editing and maintaining PDF files. While most applications will let you save files in PDF format, Acrobat Pro lets you modify your PDF files as well as being able to create a PDF format from almost any other file type. Adobe Acrobat is installed on the Chisholm computers. One great feature of Adobe Acrobat Pro is the inbuilt OCR.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/au/en/acrobat/pricing/compare-versions.html

https://acrobat.adobe.com/au/en/acrobat/how-to/ocr-software-convert-pdf-to-text.html

Open Source

There are a number of choices when it comes to open source or free Office applications. LibreOffice is the best supported open source office productivity suite with regular updates and a good following.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

https://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/english-documentation/

Online

As well as standalone applications, there are also quite a few cloud options. Microsoft Office has both a standalone version and a cloud-based version. Google Docs (Google Drive) is another popular cloud-based office productivity suite.

https://www.office.com/

https://drive.google.com/

Text Based files - Class Activity 5

What is the cost of Adobe Acrobat? DO you think it is worth the money considering that most software allows you to save your file as a PDF.

What other alternatives can you find? What is the cost and/or licencing requirements of the alternatives? What file formats can be opened and saved?

What OCR software is available that will convert PDF to text? What is the cost?

Text Based files - Class Activity 6

Try scanning a printed document to a PDF. Use Acrobat's OCR to create an editable version of your printed document. In a library support context, when might this feature come in handy.

Welcome to Lesson 4 - Just a bit of light reading for discussion (assuming that projector not working)

Legislation and other Interesting bits and pieces!

The following information may be useful when planning and creating a digital repository.

Class Activity

Read the above articles and think about the following:

What are the risks associated with Digitisation? How can they be reduced?

What are the Laws (legislation) surrounding Digital preservation and repositories?

Are there any standards? Are they Australian based or International?

Outline any Copyright issues that need to be considered what creating and maintaining a digital repository.

What is the Australian Society of Archivists? What do they do?

Search This Blog

BSBLIB506 Maintain Digital Repositories