One part of the issue with the existing scanned slides is that there is an uneven quality (not to mention sizes vary, and not all the scans ever made it to the web, so far as I can tell). Part of the reason is that the automated software in the past wasn't up to the job, and part was that the sheer volume of slides tended to preclude much in the way of correction. If we return to these slides once more, these issues are still present (unless we farm it out); however, the tools have improved. Right now, $1500 gets a top notch scanner (Nikon ES5000ED) and an automated slide feeder. I bought the scanner for myself for personal use, so I can show what can be done.

Here is one of the more dreadful slides in the collection (this was never scanned before, for obvious reasons):

Probably with careful work in Photoshop and some idea what the colors originally were, you might be able to make this look decent. And you could maybe get rid of the scratches and dust too. Within the Nikon software, there are some fairly braindead tools that remove dust and scratches, that adjust the colors, and that reach into shadows and highlights and recover some information. For this slide, the color recovery tool stands out (though also notice that the scratches below "convection current" are gone too):

On a more normal note, consider this slide (not available online, though it apparently was scanned) of Yellowstone Falls:

That's the raw scanner acquisition, and it isn't bad. With all the professional adjustment tools on in their default values, you get this:

While this isn't entirely satisfactory from a photographic standpoint, for use in class this might be superior. Landform shapes in the underexposed forest at rear are now visible, as is some detail in the shadows at left. You can see a few other tests here...

We are now using Web iPhoto for the slide server. This can search the fields entered in to iPhoto; furthermore, it will allow downloading of the metadata for loading into local versions of iPhoto. We can easily add new photos to the database.