Equipment

Digitization Equipment

The Digitization Centre at the University Library, University of Saskatchewan, home of Saskatchewan History Online office, has a large amount of digitization scanning equipment readily available for use for Saskatchewan Memory Institutions and interested individuals. Some equipment is fairly standard (flat bed scanners, digital cameras) and some is extremely specialized and requires well-trained staff to operate effectively. These machines are open to use for any contributor to the Sask History Online project, and can be used by non-contributors for a nominal upkeep-recouperation fee.

Flat-bed Scanners:

Being the most basic equipment used to scan textual documents and photographs, SHO has several flat bed scanners:

  • Epson V600 (x2) - useful for scanning opaque (i.e. non-transparent) objects up to 8.5" x 11", although it can scan three 35mm slides at a time.
  • Epson V700 - slightly more advanced than the 600, the major upgrade is that it can scan up to twelve 35 mm slides at a time or scan some bigger negatives.
  • Epson XL10000 - this scanner is oversized (17.5" x 12") and thus very useful for larger documents or photographs.
  • Plustek Book Edge Scanner - The main advantage this scanner has is it's glass goes directly to the edge, allowing tightly-bound books to be scanned one page at a time without damaging the spine, though it's fairly slow going. It is good for selective scanning or very fragile books.
  • Canon 5D Mark II full frame digital CMOS camera - This is a fairly high-end camera useful for capturing three dimensional artefacts and sometimes to quickly photograph images, though cameras have some distortion/curvature from use of the lens to capture the digital image.

Specialty Equipment:

  • Kirtas Kabis III Automated Bookscanner:
  • The Kabis is an automated bookscanner, which uses a robotic arm with vacuum suction along with several sensors to automatically turn pages from bound books; photos of each page are captured via the attached Canon 5D Mark II cameras (with 70 mm fixed-length lenses) and can work up to almost 3000 pages an hour.

  • Kirtas Quartz A0 HD
  • The Quartz A0 HD is an oversize scanner that uses an overhead mounted camera to scan the entire bed (1250 x 870 mm); this is especially well-suited to scanning posters, maps, panoramic photographs, large canvases, framed artwork, or other oversized material.

  • Braun Slide Scanner
  • The Automated slide scanner can scan up to 100 slides in one holder with minimal user input, allowing us to scan large batches of 35mm slides with minimal labour. At maximum resolution (5000dpi) scans take approximately 5 minutes.

  • Eclipse Microfilm scanner
  • The microfilm scanner is stationed at the SAB (Saskatchewan Archives Board) in Regina and was purchased for initial use in the SHNO (Saskatchewan Historical Newspaper) project. The initial project is roughly 1 000 000 images from Saskatchewan newspapers dated ~1890 up till the end of WWI (1919) and eventually will include later material. The machine is operated by trained personnel at the SAB.

Other equipment:

The Special Collections & Archives at the University Library, University of Saskatchewan has a Reel-to-Reel player and an A-to-D (analogue-to-digital) converter that allows audio reels to be converted into digital audio files.