Technical issues

Since I felt as though I was clearly pioneering into a form of historical research, utilising the latest market technology, I had little idea what to expect. Of course I was aware of the advantages, but what about any possible disadvantages? The first problem I encountered was power supply. My digital camera, like most I believe, did not include an AC-chord. To order this off the website would cost me over £30. The alternative was four AA-batteries, which did come with the camera; but digital cameras (LCD-screen activated or not) consume a lot of power. Those standard AAs went cold after four hours. Nor do I like the idea of a power chord dangling from my camera, over a crowded table with precious documents and my laptop...

So, the best solution for me was to invest in two sets of four rechargeable AA-batteries, and a battery charger. Nickel-hydride batteries are much better than nickel-cadmiums, incidentally. You can purchase chargers now that accommodate four AAs at a time, with four AA nickel-hydride batteries, for around £15. But you will always want at least two sets: one in the camera, the other always charging at a nearby outlet. Fortunately most national archives, public libraries, or local county record offices have accessible power outlets. If you want your digital camera shooting for upwards of 6-8 hours, then a third, previously-charged set, is also recommended. When you get home, begin charging your drained sets immediately, to be ready the next morning. No electrical power means no digital research!

I have already given my opinion on the actual memory-downloading process, preferring PCMCIA-port adaptors for laptops rather than another dangling (USB) chord in a workspace. Keep your digital camera mobile. A much more serious problem concerns memory. I settled for a resolution-setting which was the best combination of memory-economy and image quality. Even so, the average size of each JPEG image-file/shot was 200k, or, a quarter of one megabyte (which equals 1,000k). This makes sense; as I said before, I averaged about 40 shots before my digital camera’s 8-megabyte memory card 'filled up’. If I could manage 300 such photos per day, I was therefore dumping 60 megabytes of data into my laptop’s hard-drive. After a week this meant some 300-360 megabytes – over a quarter-gigabyte of hard-drive memory. Do this for a couple of months and you will simply run out of space; at least that was the case with my laptop which (originally) had what was then regarded as a gigantic 6-gigabyte memory capacity. Even though 20-gigabytes is standard now on new laptops, let alone PCs, you see the danger.

The problem was not so much stretching my laptop’s memory with this flood of digitised historical research material, but retaining the ability to back it up. For this, even a zip-drive was not enough, unless I was willing to spend over an hour making copies on a dozen or so zip-discs. (Backing up a gigabyte of digital data onto old floppies, by the way, will require some 714 discs!)  Greedy and in a hurry as usual, I was not. Digital – and computer – technology seem to balance themselves out quickly enough, however. Just as digital cameras became more affordable, CD-writers or 'burners’ appeared on the market as well. Your standard recordable CDR has a 700-megabyte capacity. Only by now, the hardware required for digital research has begun to add up:

1. 2-(million) mega-pixel range camera (or higher),
2. Two to three sets (of 4) AA rechargeable nickel-hydride batteries, plus charger,
3. CD-Writer (standard now with new PCs and some laptop-computers).

Another concern is the strength of your laptop itself (I assume laptop here if you plan on spending a day or two at a remote archive site). If your machine is an older model, it will at least need to have 64 megabytes of RAM, preferably 128, to actually manipulate all these JPEG files. Hard-drive memory capacity should be at least 6 gigabytes to start with. The processor itself should be Pentium-III, 650-megahertz (equivalent) or greater. Digital-based research material, pouring nearly everything onto your laptop or PC, will likely push its capacity to the limit. It can go either way, depending on how new your machine is, and what its 'specs’ are.

Let me now explain another problem. In the past several years my handy digital camera (or 'scanner’, or 'photocopier’) has taken over 26,000 photos, at least 22,000 of which are research-related. How does one make sense of 20,000+ files? Organisation is the key. You simply cannot rely upon separate JPEG-files for document consultation on your computer. Let’s say I found a four-page letter in an archive which I wanted a full copy of. I take four shots to capture each page, making four JPEG-files, 'DCP_0001’, 'DCP_0002’, 'DCP_0003’, 'DCP_0004’. I want the document in a multi-page file, however, that I can find and open when I want, rather than having to open four separate files to read that one letter. Each JPEG-file would have to be renamed at any rate, making organisation of this research four times as tedious.

Of all the software programs I currently had, or since, the one I found the most suitable for this purpose was IMAGING for Windows (by Kodak). First of all, it is a standard Windows program4, like 'Calculator’, 'Notepad’, or 'Paint’, found by going:

Start > Programs > Accessories

Secondly, it has a relatively easy interface, no more functions than you really need. These include cutting, pasting, rotating and magnifying an image; as well as 'Annotation’ tools so you can highlight passages within the image or even insert 'Notes’ on pages within the document. Going backwards and forwards to different pages is also straightforward. But how do you get JPEGs into the Imaging format (which are saved as TIFF files)?