Converting a large photographic negative collection to digital form

Like many media production facilities in recent years, we at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Media Services have made the transition from silver and wet photographic processes to digital production methods. During that process we found that many of our products had to be transferred from traditional to digital form. One major asset we had was a portrait negative file that contained about 13,000 photographic negatives of nearly 6,000 individuals. These negatives were of individuals currently on staff or who had had their portrait taken while on staff in the past. The oldest of these negatives went back twenty years. About 65 percent of the collection consisted of 4 x 5 black and white negatives and the rest evenly distributed between 120 and 35 mm film formats. Less than 20 percent of the entire collection was color.