How are Documents Digitally Restored?
When done correctly, scanning the physical document does no damage to the original material. First, the archivists conduct a page by page review. When papers get shuffled during moves or when multiple people are using documents for research, it’s easy to misplace pages. This step ensures that each page is documented and none are missing or out of order. Each page is also checked for quality and any damage. Is there a tear in a corner or is some text barely legible? This phase is for documenting anything that might hinder the next step. If a page has a tear, it should be repaired with archival tape and it should absolutely not be fed through a scanner feed. If a page has light text, the scanner’s settings should be changed. Digital archivists will note any missing or damaged text as well. The pages are then scanned. Once the pages are scanned, archivists carefully examine the images, and then perform image cleanup. During this stage of digitization, the images undergo extreme scru...