Photo Scanning

Digital cameras and the Internet have made photo sharing a whole lot easier. But what about all those old photos stuck in albums, or piled in shoe boxes? Wouldn't it be great if they could be e-mailed and posted online too? They can be! All it takes is a flatbed scanner, image scanning software, and a computer. If your organization doesn't already have a scanner available, it may be possible to rent one. Check your local equipment rental stores. It's best to set a per photo price, but you can offer volume discounts for those with a lot of photos. Allow participants to bring their own CDs or flash drives to store the scanned photos, or add them to the service for an extra fee. You can buy CDs and paper sleeves for minimal cost at a bulk retailer. Be sure to handle photos with care. You may want to place a limit on the age of the photos to prevent damage to very old photographs, and have photo owners remove their own photos from albums before bringing them to be scanned. You can even follow it up with a class on how to upload photos to the Internet, for an additional fee, of course.