IWM archive losses material

[Schirmmutze]

Thanks to all. Seems like this information is already in the capable hands of Andreas so I see no benefit of sticking my nose into this as well!

Here's hoping that it will be made available online in the future and I wish you every success with that.

[Marcel van Heijkop]

Just recieved IWM Duxford's DVD containing the QM6 losses, great to have them in such a handy format!

Some additional remarks:

• All orders are handled by archivist Mr Stephen Walton, who provides great service. Please note that his correct email address is SWalton@IWM.ORG.UK, not @IEM....
• Cost is 45 Pounds including air mail.
• On the DVD are 26 Adobe PDF files which consist of scans of the contents of the 12 IWM microfilm reels taken from the original registers now in the BA-MA Freiburg. A typical PDF file contains some 400 scans/pages.
• Quality of the scans is just as good/bad as the original microfilm/fiches, which means that some of them are quite sharp and others annoyingly unsharp...

Hope this helps. Best regards,

Marcel

[thenelm]

The copy of the 1st film (39 thru the France) that I've reviewed from the IWM is almost useless. It was very badly copied and virtually illegible, at least for several key sections - the Battle for France is one I remember in particular. Possibly it was just a bad copy of the film, but I can't speak to that. The other 11 films are, for the most part, fine except for some terrible penmanship (or just some weird variations in script) for handwritten additions. Some are easily read, others incomprehensible. The typed correction pages are key, unfortunately I wasn't that smart back then. Working around the mistakes is another subject all together. (And like Andreas and several others, I have transcribed all this into a database.)

[brewerjerry]

Hi
There must be some sort of loophole with scanning and making into a pdf file.
Just look at e bay and see all the aircraft manuals, same as the ones owned by hendon, NA/PRO, IWM. etc, available for sale.
All the sellers claim 'digital rights ' or some similar phrase, so surely the same would apply here to the loss tables, if they were scanned.
cheers
Jerry

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by thenelm

The copy of the 1st film (39 thru the France) that I've reviewed from the IWM is almost useless.

If you are working from a digital file and have Photoshop or similar software it is often possible to "retrieve" text from very bad or faint copies. The end result may look decidedly odd but at least you can read it.

I have photographed pages at the National Archives that I could barely read on paper but managed to make legible on screen.

[Clint Mitchell]

You could even set up a Photoshop 'action' to apply the same enhancement process to every single scan with only the press of a single button for the whole batch of scans. Very quick process once set up you can just walk away from your machine and it carries on doing all the work for you.

As for the copyright I think it would be wise to get legal advice on the matter. You might be ok if you are completely transcribing them into a different format (say a database) but then what is the difference between transcribing another authors copy from a book and reusing it. A tough one.

Clint