Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's edition of the FOREVER Digitization Connection!

This week, I’ve gathered valuable insights and tips from our production team that will help you navigate the digitization journey with ease when returning a Specialty Box. Let's get started!

First and foremost, let’s address the critical aspect of counting your scanning items accurately. Proper counting is essential to ensure that the digitization process is smooth and efficient. Here are some detailed guidelines:

Provide Individual Counts for Each Bag
When preparing your items for scanning, it’s vital to provide a separate count for each individual bag rather than a single total count. To make this easier, consider counting your photos, negatives, slides, etc. as you place them in the bags. This practice streamlines the inventory process, but if you need help counting and organizing, we can do this for a $60 fee.

Accurate Counting for Different Scanning Items

• Negatives: Each image on a negative strip is considered a separate image. For instance, if you have a negative strip with four images, it should be counted as four images.
• Album Pages and Flatbeds: When counting album pages or flatbed scans, remember to count both the front and back of each page. Therefore, if you have 40 double-sided pages, they should be counted as 80 images in total.

We have noticed that sticky notes often cause more problems than they solve, particularly during the shipping process. Here are some detailed guidelines to avoid issues with sticky notes:

Do Not Use Sticky Notes for Titles, Counts, or Page Numbering
Sticky notes tend to come loose during shipping and can end up at the bottom of the bags or stuck to incorrect pages, leading to confusion for our scanning team. To ensure that your items are scanned in the correct order and without issues, please avoid using sticky notes for any form of labeling.

Securing Items During Shipping
If you are concerned about items shifting during transit, we recommend using tape to secure the bags tightly around your items. This will help keep everything in place without the risk of sticky notes becoming dislodged.

Using Sticky Notes Appropriately
The only scenario where sticky notes are useful is to mark pages or photos that you do not want to be scanned. In this case, make sure the sticky notes are securely attached and clearly visible.

Barcode stickers are a fantastic tool for maintaining order and organization in your digitization project. Here’s how to make the most out of your barcode stickers:

Sequential Order of Stickers
Always start with "Sticker 01" and proceed in numerical order. Our system requires items to be in this sequence to ensure a smooth scanning process. If there are gaps in the numbers or if items are numbered in descending order, we will need to remove and replace the stickers to maintain proper order, which can delay the process.

Handling Excess Items
If you find that you have more items than the number of stickers provided, you can continue numbering each bag using a Sharpie. Once your order arrives at our facility, we will provide stickers to ensure everything is in numerical order.

Ensuring Consistency
Consistency in the use of barcode stickers not only helps us, but also makes it easier for you to track and organize your items. Make sure to follow the numerical order meticulously and check that all stickers are securely attached.