Main Body

Hardware: the stuff you need

Digital duplication is the cornerstone to modern research trips.  No matter if you intend to digitalize a few documents or entire boxes worth of memorandum these are the tools you will need.

Small Laptop/Ultrabook

It is highly advisable for you to bring along a laptop with you on your research trip.

A computer running Windows or Mac-OS is essential to spot-check digitalized copies of research material, upload files from your camera, organize content, and OCR efficiently. Although you can accomplish much with a tablet or Chromebook, both are limited in their power and functionality and are not yet engineered for the level of productivity you will need in the field.

That said, be selective as to what you bring. You will want as small a laptop as possible. If your computer is a juggernaut with a 15.6” or 17.1″ monitor, leave it at home. You will regret having to carry it through airports and train stations. Even if your budget is tight, you can find a relatively inexpensive 12-14” (screen size) laptop.

You may want to consider an ultrabook or a laptop-tablet hybrid: both are small-form laptops with great speed and power married to a minimalist design. They feature solid-state drives (low weight, less power consumption, fast boot times), but they have few ports and no disc drives (though when is the last time you popped a CD into your computer?).

One word of warning, make certain that any computer you bring has a USB port. You will need one.

Suggestions:

Camera Phone

Your phone will take as good, if not better macro-shots, than a point and shoot camera, and is far less bulky than a high-end DSLR. Overall, mobile phones are amongst the most popular cameras on the planet and you may find you can use yours as your primary research camera.  However, if you already have a decent (and smallish) digital camera, bring that along was well.  Even the best mobile phone batteries will not last a day of constant shooting. If you’re in an older archive without access to a nearby plugin, you may need use the traditional camera while the phone recharges.

Digital Camera

Nearly archaic, but still a strong contender for digital research. For macro shots of papers and research material a simple point-and-shoot camera will suit your needs much better than a bulky DSLR or Super Zoom camera. The point-and-shoot cameras are small, portable, feature image stabilization, and their shorter focal length will provide crisper shots at close range. Perhaps most importantly their light weight and simplicity of use make it relatively easy to take thousands of shots a day.

If you have access to multiple cameras (mobile phone, point-and-shoot, DSLR), perform some comparison tests before you leave for the field. Take shots of some sample documents in a variety of lighting conditions with a few different cameras and your mobile phone. Next, convert the results into PDF’s and then run them through Adobe Acrobat’s (or Microsoft OneDrive’s) OCR software.  See which camera works best for you. Surprising, when comparing my PowerShot (A4000 IS, 8x zoom, 16.0 megpix) to my iPhone 5, my four-year-old iPhone frequently produced better digitalized files that had better OCR results than my PowerShot.

Storage

Local Storage – Hard drives are cheap and increasingly small. You will want at least one 2.5” Hard Drive (about the size of  pack of cards) to back up your files. If you have an older 3.5” external drive leave it at home.

Cloud Storage – Cloud Storage is an increasingly advantageous method of data storage.  You can easily set your phone, and even newer cameras, to automatically sync any photo you take to the cloud.  Your cloud software can then automatically sync it to a computer so that by the time you finish your research for the day all of your files have been automatically uploaded to your computer for easy organization before you go to bed.  If you are using Microsoft’s OneDrive, Microsoft will even word-search enable all of your photos and provide you with full text files of your documents.

Local storage vs. Cloud storage – Local storage requires you to manually upload, organize, and back up your files to a hard drive, while cloud servers will do all of that for you. Advantage: cloud storage.  However, the magic of cloud storage only works if you have constant high-speed access to the internet. This is not always a viable (or cheap) proposition away from home.  Even if an archive claims to have internet access, it is a good idea when you are abroad to carry your computer and a small 2.5” HDD with you to the archive just in case the internet service is unbearably slow or not working the day you are there.  A computer and (an inexpensive) external drive will ensure that you can quickly upload and back up documents while still in the archive and offers peace of mind knowing that your day digitalizing documents will not be undermined by a fluke accident to the archive’s internet.

Cloud Suggestions

 

Other Tech Considerations

VPN software

If you are a UW-Madison student, download the UW’s VPN software before you leave abroad.  The VPN will establish an encrypted network connection that will make it appear as if all of your internet traffic is originating from UW-Madison.  This provides an added layer of security when you are using public WiFi. Also, since you have a UW-Madison IP address you can use campus resources abroad. Perhaps most importantly, you can use it to get Netflix no matter what country you are in.

Plug adaptorsimage_us-uk-plugadapter

Plug adaptors allow you to plug your electronic devices into local electrical outlets. Bring a few to charge your devices when abroad, and be sure to carry one with you when in airports.  Many airports have charging stations, and it is always nice to top off one’s tablet for the long-haul flight back to the States. Do NOT purchase voltage adaptors (see Hardware: the stuff you don’t need).

 

Power-strip

Bring a small power-strip. European hostels/B&B’s often do not feature many plug-in’s per room – and you really do not want to have to pick between recharging your iPhone, your computer, or your camera batteries

Mobile Phone

Having a phone overseas can be a life-saver. The last two times I visited the UK, I used Google Maps on my iPhone 5 to chart my way throughout the country via bus, tube, train effortlessly.  I never had to worry about being lost, or frantically re-plan a trip if I missed a connection – Google took care of it all.  Also, it was very useful for contacting local friends, and archivists without resorting to expensive pay phones. To use your phone abroad, it will need to have a have a SIM card (If not, don’t worry, there is another option – see below). The week before you leave, contact your mobile company, explain your situation, and ask that they unlock your phone so you can use it abroad. Some mobile carriers will refuse. If so, ask for their voice/data rates in the country you will visit, and if there are any phone packages you can purchase (to maybe save some money).  My mobile company (Ting) was so kind as to unlock my iPhone. When I got to the UK, I picked a local mobile company, told them what I wanted to do and they hooked me up with a cheap SIM card with a fixed amount of data/minutes.  When I ran out, I simply “topped-up” my account at the local supermarket.  Pretty handy.

Consider purchasing a cheap phone abroad if your phone does not have a SIM card, your mobile company will not unlock your phone (many will not), or if their foreign voice/data plan is too expensive.

On an earlier trip to the UK in 2013, I purchased a very inexpensive “burner” at O2 for £12.95. I then purchased a £10.00 SIM card with all the minutes and text messages I needed for the month I planned to be abroad. In total, I paid £22.95 for a phone with which I could call the USA, the archives I needed to visit, and arrange hotel reservations. Great investment, though no internet

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Research in a Digital Age Copyright © 2016 by Lane Sunwall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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