pastport

Frequently Asked Questions

Your most burning PastPort questions, answered.

What is the difference between scanning and digital preservation?

Digital preservation requires more than simply scanning pages. Scanning presents two options – quickly scan a low resolution image or spend a significant amount of time scanning to a high resolution format. Generally both formats end up as unmanaged assets on a server or external hard drive. Flatbed scanners also introduce image processing which does not allow for a true representation of the physical material. For more information see our History Saving Fundamentals.

Why can’t I just use my iPhone camera with the PastPort station?

Much like scanners, the iPhone camera will never give you a true representation of the actual condition of the material you are imaging. The iPhone camera overcomes image capture shortcomings by introducing an entire suite of image processing. This impacts color accuracy, over-sharpening and each item will be imaged differently based on the material presented to the camera.

Do I need an iPhone with a data plan?

No. You do need your iPhone to be connected to a wifi connection so that you can utilize PastPort mobile app to create digital preservation TIFF files and transfer them via the Internet directly into your account where you can bulk ingest, catalog, and tag them.

Can my iPhone 6 work with PastPort?

PastPort can not support any model prior to the iPhone 7. The camera sensors on older iPhones are too small to support PastPort’s archival quality imaging.

I am applying for a grant for PastPort. How should I plan for the annual license?

A preservation or digitization grant is a great way to secure a PastPort for your organization. HistoryIT offers discounts for three- and five-year licenses. During that period, your organization can work to fit the license into your budget.

What happens if I cancel my PastPort HistoryIT account after the first year?

A HistoryIT account is required to use PastPort for digital preservation imaging, as well as the bulk ingesting, cataloging, and tagging of your individual items. For any reason, at any time, you may stop using your HistoryIT account and download all of your images and metadata for no cost. You also have the option of of paying a minimal fee to “park” your account and come back to it later. HistoryIT is committed to saving history, not holding your collections hostage. If you have concerns about your account, give us a call and we will work something out.

Can I use an Android phone with PastPort?

Currently, the PastPort app is only available for iOS in the App Store. While it is available for anyone to download, you will need a HistoryIT software license. An Android version of the app is currently in development.

Package & Pricing

Order a PastPort today for only $3,400, plus $65 shipping and handling fee.

The PastPort package consists of the PastPort Station, Mobile Application, and a one-year license to the HistoryIT software used to bulk ingest, catalog, tag, manage, and share the materials you create in PastPort. Following the first year of use, ongoing use of the HistoryIT software will require an annual license of $1,000. Multi-year licenses are available.

Order a PastPort

History Saving Fundamentals

History is only saved if future generations can access the resources that contain information about the past. In addition to preserving our physical archival collections, it is imperative that we digitize our history in a way that allows generations to come to find and draw meaning from the items in our archives.

Saving history means more than scanning low resolution images that you can email to a colleague or that get lost on a server somewhere. Saving history means transforming records of the past, in whatever their current state, into a digital format that can evolve into future formats and tagging those materials in ways that allow people to find and understand them.

When initiating or reevaluating any archival digitization initiative, focus effort in the three fundamental aspects of effective and sustainable digital history: digital preservation imaging, strategic tagging, and engaging audiences.

DIGITAL PRESERVATION

Digital preservation imaging involves more than simply scanning or photographing an item. It requires applying top standards to the imaging process and thereby producing digital images that will last as technology changes over time. Maintaining the highest digitization standards will mitigate the potential need to re-digitize materials at a future date, should the evolution of web technology render a particular format obsolete. During the digitization process, an archival preservation copy of each digital image is created. This high-resolution TIFF file must meet current digital imaging preservation standards by ensuring that the longest edge of any type of item is 6,000 pixels. These large digital files must be stored in a secure environment that maintains a connection between the file and any related files or catalog information.

Low-resolution versions of those items, referred to as web derivative files, must then be created. In 2019, the most common examples of these are JPGs or PDFs. The purpose of these files is to allow web browsers or computers to load them quickly for easy viewing.

Producing these two levels of files – archival master TIFFs for longterm digital preservation and lower resolution web derivatives for easy viewing – is only the first step of saving our history. If these files are simply stored on a computer, server, or cloud storage, but cannot be located without opening and viewing each individual file, they are doomed to disappear into the digital dumping ground of the future.

STRATEGIC TAGGING

Digital preservation files must be organized in such a way that people can easily find them. Metadata creation is the magic sauce that makes an entire digital collection searchable. At its most basic level, it is cataloging and indexing. For modern digital collections, though, it is much more. In order for the average person to find information of interest using the normal language they employ for online searching is to write descriptive information and, most importantly, to apply tags that make a specific item discoverable.

Note two key aspects of what’s mentioned above:

EVERY ITEM must be tagged. Cataloging a collection – say a box or folder – of items forces an online visitor to page through file by file looking for something specific. Only the most dedicated researcher would do this. All others will abandon the effort. The history is not saved for these people. Perhaps more importantly, the vast majority of those who are simply curious about a topic, rather than looking for something specific, will never discover an item that might affect their understanding of a topic.
Tags must be used strategically. Different people use different vocabularies in everyday life, including online searching. Also, people approach digital history collections or use digital archives for different purposes. A specific strategy must be developed that identifies different groups of online visitors and employs a methodology for tagging all items to meet those visitors where they are.

ENGAGING AUDIENCES

Once all digital assets and metadata records are ingested into a secure digital preservation and collection management system, public-facing online presentations provide a variety of portals through which the public may interact with the content. In addition to general searching, such portals often include timelines, interactive exhibits and other storytelling presentations, and biographies.

Saving history means keeping people engaged in its meaning and use. Creating an accessible digital archive is only the first step in saving history. It provides a framework for storytelling, educating, and engaging different audiences.

How PastPort Works

The steps below show how easy it is to digitally preserve your collection and build a searchable digital archive with PastPort. To begin, you need your physical archival materials, your PastPort station, and an iPhone 7 or newer with the PastPort mobile app installed.

Getting Started & Logging In

PastPort can create digital archival master files from any flat archival items, such as documents, images, newspaper clippings, and small pamphlets up to 8 1/2 x 11 in size. Gather your materials by your PastPort station and get ready to become a digital preservation ninja! Connect the to your Wifi and login to your PastPort account on your mobile phone.

Etched Grid Guide

The etched grid guide on the bottom of the PastPort helps assure consistent placement of every item you image. The guidelines for each size correspond to the height of the platform.

Weighted Museum Glass

The hinged, anti-glare museum glass pressure plate keeps items flat. The glass can flatten softbound materials, such as programs, up to approximately 14 pages.

Adjustable iPhone Platform

The adjustable iPhone platform shows you the exact distance that the camera must be from the archival object. The platform is placed according to the etched grid guide. The PastPort mobile app utilizes the internal level functionality in your iPhone to confirm that the platform is level when capturing

A Single Tap Produces A Digital Master Archival TIFF File

PastPort bypasses the image compression functionality in iOS, which produces very small images despite the resolution of the phone’s camera. When you click your camera button, PastPort instantaneously takes approximately ten high resolution images. It then stitches them together into a single digital master archival TIFF file. The mobile app then immediately transfers this file into your HistoryIT account. After you tap the camera button, go ahead and lift the glass, remove your item, and insert the next one.

Bulk Cataloging and Tagging with HistoryIT

When you finish a digital imaging preservation session with PastPort, log into your HistoryIT account (included in the PastPort package) in order to view your files, name them, and, if you wish, create bulk catalog metadata and tags. For example, if you import five photographs of your father, here is the process that PastPort will take you though:

Capture each photograph at the PastPort station.
Log into your HistoryIT account to see the five images waiting for you to catalog and place them.
Select five images, choose a location (collection, container, etc.) in which to place them, and choose the type of item you are adding.
Review the template for that item type, indicate whether you want to create a single record, e.g. Dad Childhood Photos, and add all of the assets to that record; or opt to quickly create individual records for each item so that you may return later add more specific information, such as date, to each item.
When you import your assets as individual records, you may name each file in consecutive order and add any catalog information, such as descriptions, dates, or name and subject tags, that will automatically be applied to each item.

What PastPort Is

PastPort is the fastest, easiest & most affordable way to capture, tag & share preservation quality images in seconds. A pre-assembled, mobile, table-top solution to provide a controlled environment for digitizing historical collections, PastPort solves common digitization problems, including lighting, object orientation, camera manipulation, capture device placement, and more. The integrated mobile app handles imaging and uploading of newly created digital archival master files to the your HistoryIT software platform for asset management and metadata creation (cataloging and tagging).

While some higher-end desktop scanners can reach the resolutions of true digital preservation, most take four minutes or more to scan a single item. PastPort is able to digitize each item in less than a second. The user is only bound by the speed at which they can move materials in and out of the PastPort.

The mobile application used with the iPhone takes up to ten images of the item and then processes them into a single, high-resolution archival image that is transferred to the user’s HistoryIT software account where it can be tagged individually or in bulk.

Why History Needs PastPort

At HistoryIT our mission is to save history. All of our products and services are designed with the intent to democratize our collective history by making the public historical record just as accessible, searchable and meaningful to a fifth grader as to a professional researcher. In order to accomplish this goal we must transform physical holdings into an accessible digital format. This involves 1) creating true digital preservation quality files that will hold up over time as image and web technologies change; and 2) cataloging and tagging EVERY SINGLE ITEM in a digital collection so that people can find them easily. Until now, achieving both of these tasks has been expensive or time consuming, which has significantly limited the amount of history we can save. HistoryIT’s PastPort™ changes everything.

If your digitizing station looks anything like this

If you don’t have the funds or expertise to purchase, house, and use something like this

If you are not in a position to outsource your digitization initiative to a place like this

PastPort is your answer!

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