Digitization Capabilities in the TechLab

If you have 35 mm slides or negatives that you use for teaching or viewing, you can now more easily turn these treasures into digital images with new HP scanners that were recently updated in the TechLab (2nd floor of Van Wylen). These digitized images can then easily be used in a Power Point, used for printing, or shared electronically.

The scanners have all the capabilities of the previous HP scanners, with an additional adapter that allows a strip of negatives or (5) 35mm slides to be scanned at a time. There are multiple settings and profiles that allow manipulation of resolution, color, exposure and noise. You can never create a better image than the original, but you can make adjustments to enhance your digitized image.

The scanning software also has OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capability, so that paper text documents can be scanned and opened in MS WORD for editing or saving. Depending on the formatting and condition of the original, the OCR document may require further editing, but the results with the text have been very good thus far.

The TechLab is located on the Second Floor of Van Wylen next to the Media Services desk, under the skylights near the entrance to Van Zoeren. It is run by library staff and student tutors who are available to help with scanning, and other technology resources, during library hours.

— Daphne Fairbanks, TechLab Coordinator

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