IWM archive losses material

[Schirmmutze]

I'm interested in obtaining copies of the Luftwaffe losses list held at the IWM. In the educated opinions of the members here, would that be a worthwhile avenue of research? In other words, are the records held there of high quality or just poor quality scans of the originals that can't be read?

I live and work in London and being a graphic designer, I have experience with scanners and producing high quality digital documents. I also have some free time on my hands these days and would be more than willing to look into contacting the IWM with the possible intention of scanning these documents and making them available online for everyone. I don't see any issue with copyright laws. I understand that this information was made available via cd's for sale years ago. It's not my intention to make a profit out this at all though, I'm merely interested in obtaining some info for myself and thought that I could benefit everyone at the same time.

Is that something that would be of interest? and does anyone here have any advise about how I can the ball rolling?

Thanks
Ben

[Larry deZeng]

Here's a little information. At the time I bought them from the IWM 25 years ago, they only came in one format: 35 mm microfilm retailed at $90 U.S. per roll, of which there were 12 rolls in all. The paper copies were returned to the FRD in the early 1970s. IWM at this time only has them in the film format, I think.

Meanwhile, in Deutschland, BA-MA Freiburg sells them to researchers in microfiche or 35 mm reel format. The researcher had a choice.

Within the past 10 years or so, they have also become available in CD format, but I do not know from whom.

L.

[Schirmmutze]

Thank you Larry!
So, do you think that if I managed to work with the IWM in scanning the microfilm and uploading the data to a free online source that that would be worthwhile or not?
I'm new to this and am unsure whether this information is what I personnaly need to answer the questions I have because I've never seen it but like I said, I'm willing to take this on as a project if the demand is there. If it is, I can phone the IWM tommorrow to discuss.
Cheers
Ben

[Larry deZeng]

I think you are doing exactly the right thing, Ben, in soliciting opinion here before proceeding. Hopefully, enough of the members will express their thoughts to give you some idea of the demand for what you propose.

Personally, I think researchers would much, much prefer to work with your scans that with the film or fiche, these being cumbersome as well as requiring the purchase of microfilm equipment.

However, the fly in the ointment may be the IWM. They may have some licensing rights to the film and not want a competitor unless the competitor pays them a fee.

Larry

[Chris Goss]

Ben: I have a friend who wishes to get rid of his fiche copies if that helps?

[RudiS]

I think a lot of people would be interested to be able to consult these files on line.

Regards,
Rudi.

[Schirmmutze]

Thanks for the responses guys. I will contact the IWM in regards to getting this project off the ground.

[Eduardo]

Hi,

If you want info about the losses in Freiburg ( A 4 Format copies) I can help you.

Eduardo.

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

I have already scanned the loss records available from fiche and IWM films (using the best version as there is considerable quality differences from the different sets of copies), and my team is currently on the home stretch with regards to entering it all into a relational database.

Making it all available online for free... maybe in the future when the copyright issues have been cleared. With regards to the Bundesarchiv rules they are pretty clear, regardless of what members of this board and others online seem to believe, the Bundesarchiv strictly sell their copies with a clause that the person or party purchasing it is not allowed to make copies available for a third party.

As with all copyright this is of course true for a direct copy, digital or other, but a reworked version (like using the information and entering it into a manuscript or a database) will not be (at least according to the lawyers I have consulted) covered by the copyright.

So - to ensure a possibility also in the future to use the research facilities in both establishments I have decided to play by the rules they have set and that I in fact agreed to when I purchased the material.

Also - a word of advice - the 35mm films might work with a really good scanner, the fiche versions are considerably smaller in footprint, and in order to get anywhere with that source you must use a microfilm/microfiche scanner.

The person or persons working on microfilming the records that ended up at IWM was definitely quite bored from time to time, and the result show this quite clearly. The same more or less goes for the BA material, some pages are out of focus, and some unreadable due to this or the fact that the originals were in a bad shape.

In order to get a readable result for most pages I have used 600dpi scan settings on a microfilm/mikrofiche scanner.

A word of caution - I think you might end up in a legal battle at least if you use the fiche sets from BA, and hope you are prepared for this.

Regards,
Andreas B

[Tony Jones]

Hi

IWM Duxford have the QM 6 Losses already available on DVD, contact for ordering is Stephen Walton at SWalton@IEM.ORG.UK


Regards

Tony