The Long-Term Preservation and Digital Access of the Corbis Photography Collections

Abstract

This presentation will describe the long-term preservation of the Corbis black-and-white and color photographic originals and the digitization the collection for access and distribution to customers and Corbis staff worldwide. Included is a brief history of the old Corbis “traditional” darkroom and its recent replacement with scanning, digital distribution and, for those who still require traditional output, the use of Fuji Pictrography printers for making reproduction-quality prints and film recorders to produce transparencies from digital files. Also discussed is the philosophy behind the digitization effort and the secure backup and long-term preservation, data migration, and future access of the digital data. Digital print output options for customers who would like to purchase prints are described.