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Creating an Imaging Center
Eileen C. Mathias
Information Services Librarian & Coordinator,
Albert M Greenfield Digital Imaging Center for Collections
Ewell Sale Stewart Library
The Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia, PA
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, founded in 1812 and the oldest natural sciences museum in the United States, has recently established a digital imaging center for use by the Biodiversity and Library staffs.
The process started 3 years ago when a committee of about 10 was formed to write a proposal to the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation for funding. Each of us had our own ideas of what we wanted to accomplish, so we each spent time researching, talking to others who had already established imaging centers or were planning for them. We then pooled our ideas and wrote our proposal, which happily was successful.
Our imaging center is equipped with a diversity of equipment for our varying needs:
- Phase One PowerPhase scanning back with a Hasselblad medium-format camera -captures high-quality and very accurate images of our large, often hand-colored, rare books
- Kodak DCS 460, equipped with a variety of lenses and bellows,
captures in a single shot images of three-dimensional specimens that range in size from the 2 mm Ecuadorian fossil seashell to fish skeletons of up to 1 1/2 feet in length - OPAL ultra flatbed scanner
scans flat, single-sheet items such as photographs, 35 mm slides, letters, and even botanical sheets of specimens brought back by Lewis and Clark 200 years ago - Polaroid Digital Microscopic Camera
for such items as insect parts and algae - CD burner workstation.
Each of us has discovered techniques, through experimentation, that work best in our individual situations. As an example, our vertebrate paleontologist often needs to capture images of fossils embedded in flat rock. He sets the strobe lights asymmetrically (both in distance and intensity) to create shadows, thus bringing out the detail in relief of the shallow ridges and valleys created by a specimen. Birds, on the other hand, are captured with the strobe lights set symmetrically, to avoid shadow and leave nothing in the dark. Plumage color is emphasized. Our ichthyologists frequently need to capture images of wet fish (the specimens are stored in liquid preservatives), so the fish are place in rectangular glass containers. A shield is then placed around the lens, made of black flocking paper mounted on poster board, to block glare from reflections off the ceiling. As you can imagine, each specimen brings a new set of challenges.
The variety of products seems endless. Our images have been used in our own museum exhibits and publications; we have "packaged" products on the Academy's web site, such as a virtual exhibition of Edward Lear illustrations of parrots ; our scientists have digitized then published grayscale images for scientific publication; and we email, or send on disk or CD, images to scientists around the world who are studying a particular species. Museums often loan specimens to scientists, as a library would loan a book, always with the risk of damaging the specimen. Capturing the specimens electronically and sending the image instead helps us to preserve our collections.
We have been very excited about the way digital technology has expanded our outreach and given us new ways to present scientific discovery. The quality of the images is excellent, and the magnification and level of detail allows us to study and share the specimens and paper collections in ways we never anticipated.
Our digital imaging center has most certainly opened new horizons to us.
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