Old photo scanning issue

[Old Hoss]

As someone who has worked with photographs in museums before, I know that photographic surfaces (albumen prints, gelatin prints, dags, etc) are very sensitive and can be damaged when touching or rubbing against other surfaces, like the bed of a scanner.

I was referencing the potential to damage surfaces from the physical act of scanning, not from the light exposure involved.

The best way to preserve images of sensitive material like photographs, or other fragile works on paper, it seems to me, is with a digital camera. This can do the same thing that a scanner can do without touching a sensitive surface. That is the way many major museums do it. Maybe my recommendation is overly cautious?

Charles