DIY Digitization Tips

This page provides a brief overview of common digitization procedures for personal effects such as manuscript drafts, family photographs, or other memorabilia.

Identify & Select Your Materials

Before you embark on a digitization project, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Do you need to scan every single page? What are the most important topics or concepts to preserve? Perhaps start by culling your materials and remove duplicates, scraps, or other pages you deem unnecessary.
  2. What are these images for? What purposes will they serve now and in the future? This will help guide you through identifying the best method of imaging, storing, and sharing materials.

Storage & Technology Recommendations

For Document Collections

  • Use a sheet feed scanner, especially if you are digitizing a high volume of materials
  • Create PDFs and OCR them to make their contents searchable

For Photograph Collections

  • Use a flatbed scanner
    • Scan in black and white or in color
    • Don’t forget to capture any information on the back of the photograph!
  • Software suggestions include Epson Scan, Silverfast

For Slide / Negatives Collections

  • Use a flatbed scanner with transmissive capabilities
  • Lightbox and a phone
    • Instead of a lightbox, you can use your computer or phone screen with a white page on it

For Books

  • Bookeye vs. cradles in a library
  • There are flatbeds designed for books, but NOT fragile ones
  • A good use case for your phone

For Fragile or Rare Materials

  • Consider researching a professional vendor or investing in a camera-based copystand system to safely digitize this material
  • Another good use case for your phone

Using Your Phone

You can use your mobile device to digitize all material types. We recommend the following apps to assist you with digitizing:

  • Adobe Scan
  • ABBYY FineReader (only available on iPhone)
  • Google PhotoScan
  • Photomyne
  • TinyScanner
  • vFlat

Other Tips for Using Your Phone

Photo Background

  • Make sure you have a neutral background. This could be a table in your home, a countertop, etc. Consider black, white, or gray construction paper or matte board as a background as well

Lighting

  • If using a phone rather than a scanner, try to take your shots in a well lit room or near a window. Avoid harsh and direct light, which can cause highlights or reflections on the material

Positioning

  • Try to use your phone directly above the item, rather than capturing it at an angle. Be careful of shadows! Try to hold phone steady, otherwise look into a little tripod for your phone to be held for you

File Organization & Management

Think of where you are going to store all of your files.

  • An external hard drive is great so you don’t fill up your computer storage
  • Also consider a cloud based storage system like Dropbox (which will keep your folder structure in tact)
  • It’s smart to have a physical copy and a backup, whether that’s a second physical copy or a cloud backup
    • Keep in mind with cloud storage, you might need to pay a fee for space
  • Circle back to the question “What are these images for?” and this may also inform where they end up

How will you organize your files?

  • Think of a folder tree structure that will help keep you organized: The Top level folder describes what is inside (ex. OfficeFiles_2010-2025)
    • Consider the most logical way to organize each level—chronologically, matching the box/folder structure of the physical materials
    • Be descriptive in your folder naming—this will help you keep track of what is inside and also makes it searchable on your computer

Naming Conventions

Use a file naming convention to keep track of and organize your files. For example:

Ex. Box & Folder structure: OfficeFiles_Box1_Folder1_001.jpg
Ex. Chronological: OfficeFiles_2009_01-Jan_001.jpg
Ex. Descriptive (best for photographs): FamilyPhotos_SummerVacation_2010_001.jpg

Keep in mind

  • You don’t need a unique convention for every single item, use a sequential counter at the end.
  • Use programs like Better Finder Renamer (Mac), Bridge (free from Adobe), NameChanger (Mac), PowerRename (Windows) to batch rename
  • Avoid periods and spaces in your filenames, as this will support the long digital life of your files.

Share Your Materials

You can create an Omeka site. Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions.

Learn more about free and low-cost online exhibit platforms.

Additional Resources