Collaborators are needed who can supply scanned images of mycological publications not already held by Cyberliber. Those whose contributions are accepted will be named on the Collaborators page of this website with a hyperlink, if appropriate, to any personal web-page they may have. Scanned images of mycological publications from all periods may be submitted, but older mycological publications are particularly welcomed, and most of all those published before 1880. These scanned images should be either of work for which the collaborator holds the copyright, or of work for which copyright has lapsed. As a general guide, copyright is likely to lapse 50 (fifty) years after the death of the copyright holder, though there may be exceptions. For biographical information about dead mycologists, visit Cybertruffle's Fungal Valhalla. Before beginning any scanning work (particularly to avoid duplication of effort), the potential collaborator is strongly advised to contact the webmaster and, in any case, to determine whether copyright still applies to the object to be scanned.

Names of contributed files and of directories containing them. At all times, avoid capital letters, spaces and accented characters. The underscore character is, however, acceptable. Directories for storing images. The scanned images from each complete work should be stored in a separate directory. A complete work is a whole book, or one number of a journal. The directory name should enable its contents to be easily identified. Example directory names: "mycotaxon_10" (ie Mycotaxon volume 10), "grevillea_3_2" (ie Grevillea volume 3 part 2), "summa_1" (ie Fries, Summa Vegetabilium Scandinavia part 1). Names of individual files. The names of individual image files should follow the following convention based on page numbering of the source work: 0001a.jpg (page 1), 0002a.jpg (page 2), 0003a.jpg (page 3)... 0152a.jpg (page 152) etc. Where plates or figs are not within the same numbering sequence as the pages, their images may be named as follows: p001a.jpg (first plate or page with figs), p002a.jpg (second plate or page with figs), p003a.jpg (third plate or page with figs) etc. Pages with Roman numbering should be named as follows: r001a.jpg (page i = 1), r002a.jpg (page ii = 2), r003a.jpg (page iii = 3), r004a.jpg (page iv = 4), r005a.jpg (page v = 5) etc. Covers, if present, should be numbered sequentially as follows: c001a.jpg (front outside), c002a.jpg (front inside), c003a.jpg (rear inside) and c004a.jpg (rear outside). In the event that a work uses the same series of numbers more than once, replace the leading zero with a lower case letter "a" for the second series (for example use a001a.jpg if there is a second page 1, use ra01a.jpg if there is a second page i, use pa01a.jpg if there is a second plate 1), and in the unlikely event of that the same number is used more than twice, replace the leading zero with a subsequent lower case letter of the alphabet (e.g. b001a.jpg can be used for a third page 1).

Scanning. Good quality images are important: avoiding simple mistakes can greatly reduce the editorial workload. Each single page should be presented as a different scanned image. Each page should be scanned to a resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch). Each image should show the page no more than half a degree from perfect alignment [see examples of perfect alignment, half a degree out from perfect alignment and badly aligned]. Try to ensure that each scanned image only shows the current page. Images which unnecessarily include part of the next page [example] are unacceptable. If scanner margins have been incorrectly set, blank areas beyond the page are also scanned, usually resulting in one or more strong black lines [example]. Such images are unacceptable. It is essential that all of the current page is visible. Images where part of the current page is cut off [example] are unacceptable. The binding of some works may make it impossible to scan an individual page without a resulting shadow [example]. Scanner faults can also cause unsatisfactory results, for example bright lines down the scanned image [example]. Every effort should be made to minimize such shadows. Use of a dedicated book scanner, such as the Plustek Opticbook 3600 can help in that respect. Scanning pages with no colour. Where there is no colour, images should preferably be scanned in greyscale. Greyscale is the mode where there is no colour, but many different shades of gray can be recognized. Note that "greyscale" is different from "black & white": "black & white" is not suitable where half-tone prints such as photographs are present, but high quality "black & white" may be accepted where there is only text on the page. Scanning pages with colour. Where there is colour, pages should be scanned in colour in 24 bit mode.

Saving scanned images. The initial scan should be saved in JPG (also known as JPEG) format immediately and only once [sequential saving in this format results in a rapid decline of quality]. Save at a minimum quality of 8. That initially saved image is the master copy from which an edited image will be produced for the website.

Making an accompanying "readme.txt" file. Contributors are encourage to submit with each work a text file called readme.txt which can be prepared with any text editor [example]. This file can include notes to help the Cyberliber editor in preparing the images for on-line access. Information about, for example, the precise location of individual plates within a work can be included.

The editorial process. A master copy of each image received is stored in its original form. A slave copy is then taken, and the "a" suffix of the file name (which indicates the master copy) is changed to a "b" suffix (which indicates a slave copy. The slave copy is then edited and used to provide on-line access to the image. Each slave image is mechanically resized so that the image width is 650 pixels. The aspect ratio of the image is not changed by this process. If a collection of images are judged to have too much background shade, the brightness and contrast may also be altered mechanically. Each image is then individually assessed, and any further tidying is manual.