The movement from analog to digital information communications and storage in the 21st Century only started ~20 years ago, and yet there is still so much analog history that remains invisible to the digital realm. To convey historical records of significance from analog (physical materials) to digital (1s & 0s), some kind of conversion of media or format is necessary.
Professional Conversion Services
There are many online companies that provide media conversion services (sorry, ATS cannot recommend a specific company). Professional services are a good option if you are pressed for time, lack access to conversion technology, or your materials require special handling. These companies offer varying services based on media types, specialized processes, expertise, and delivery options. They may also offer bulk processing services if the number of records or media is significant. Be sure to carefully review a company’s terms of service (keep in mind that there may be some risk and liability waivers in trusting another party with your original materials).
Academic Technology Services retired its analog to digital conversion technologies in the 2010s. However, the Equipment Loan Center (ELC ) may still have technology available that can be reserved for the conversion of analog pictures, slides, and film to a digital format. They may also have a range of digital cameras as well as camera stands.
For more information, please contact Media Services.
Conversion of Storage Media
Storage media refer to analog media like cassette tapes, video tapes, film, floppy disks, and ZIP disks, as well as older digital media like CDs/CD-ROMs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray disks.
Please see the Professional Conversion Services section for more information.
Conversion of Digital File Formats
File format refers to the way a digital file is stored as indicated by a 3 0r 4 character file extension suffix (e.g. myfile.csv, myfile.doc, myfile.mp3, myfile.mov, myfile.shp, myfile.psd, etc.). Some file formats were designed to be open source (i.e. not proprietary) or have become so common that they are standard across many products. These file types tend to have longer technology life cycles in the sense that many different platforms and apps can use them. However, more often than not a proprietary file format will exist for a software product that has been deprecated, and so it cannot be used by current platforms or apps. In these cases, the file format must be converted to something either public/open source or converted to a new proprietary format usable by a current platform or app that is preferred.
Please see the Professional Conversion Services section for more information.
Digitization of Records
If the analog records are 2D paper documents, maps, photographs, etc., then these records can be 'digitized' by capturing a digital image of them and then optionally converting them to machine readable text (see Reference section below).
Digital cameras have become so good at taking capturing images that you no longer need a complex set up that might be used for archives. Follow these simple steps:
- Place the record on a flat surface (if it won't damage the record, hang it temporarily on a wall)
- Take a digital picture of the record using a smart phone or high megapixel camera (for best results, use a camera tripod and angle the camera lens perpendicular to the record to minimize distortion)
Check the Equipment Loan Center for available digital cameras and camera stands, or a stand with a smartphone adaptive mount.
If the records are 3D objects such as cultural or religious artifacts, historic tools, etc., then there may be online tools capable of using digital images from different angles/perspectives to create 3D meshes for an object using a technique called Structure from Motion (SfM).
Please see the Professional Conversion Services section for more information.