I wondered in 2007 if anyone had built a digitization lab that was mobile. I have someone who is interested in learning what others have done in terms of building a mobile lab. If you've built one, please leave a comment on this blog post. Thanks!
What is a mobile lab? One that can be moved from location to location in order to digitize material. It might be housed in a van and then driven to specific locations where items are brought out and digitized. Or it might be a van-full of equipment that is driven to a location and then setup temporarily. The idea is that this lab would move from place to place, across a state or across the country. Likely a lab would contain equipment to digitize the most prevalent type of material (i.e., flat).
12 comments:
Could you expand on what you have in mind? A laptop and a lightweight scanner could be considered a "mobile digitization lab." What else would you consider necessary?
One person in FriendFeed commented:
well, the kirtas machine is on wheels, but i doubt i'd roll it down the road ; )
Gary, the person who emailed me has left it very open. Assume that there is a van that goes from institution to institution and digitizing materials.
You're correct, a laptop and lightweight scanner would be very mobile. Many flatbed scanners can likely be moved without harming them.
There is a company in rural Minnesota that has a mobile scanning center. http://www.arcasearch.com/main/ This company did the duplication work for St. John's University illustrated bible project. http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/
Ancestry.com sets up a scanning booth at most genealogy conferences, so they must have some sort of mobile setup
Panjab Digital Library is planning a mobile digitization lab, which will have three computers, two digital cameras with lighting, one flatbed scanner, one electricity generator, etc. This lab will go to villages of Panjab, India and digitize manuscripts and rare books available in private collections which are otherwise not accessible. This lab is expected to be in the field by the end of this year.
The Cambridge Historical Society recently hired me for on-site digitization of oversize materials. My mobile camera support and workstation travel. However, they require an experienced photographer for setup, and enough low traffic real estate for hosting the project.
http://www.facebook.com/CambridgeHistory#!/CambridgeHistory
Digitization stations like the one the that we use at the National Library of Sweden are fairly mobile. Studio stand, DSLR, two lightbanks, height-adjustable table, a workstation plus misc small equipment. It should take a most an hour for an experienced operator to set-up or move the station, but it needs something like a van for transportation. We published a paper at Archiving 2010 that describes the station. I know that UConn and a digitization company in Germany use a similar set-up.
Henrik Johansson
Production Devloper, NL of Sweden
good now a days we are so fast in technical line. that is the main things . mobile like a laptop mini.ok
TownsWeb Archiving use a mobile set-up when scanning on-site. It's ideal for customers who are unsure about sending away their precious archives to be digitised.
Thanks very much to everyone who left comments -- these were very helpful!
I was originally referring to what I'd consider a full-service lab (multiple-format scanners, cameras, AV equipment, etc.) but all of this information was useful.
Thanks again!
Yes we are thinking of making a mobile embroidery digitization lab on which we will be having a full office setup!
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