"What kind of quality is he seeking? IE for what purpose are the scans?"
From what I can understand,this is a collection of historical negs and prints.
Originals will be archived,permanently, and the scans will be used for reproduction needs moving forward.
I'm going to assume that the majority of uses will be print publications with a small number of images,perhaps, being
used for museum type displays so, by and large, small reproduction sizes
Mark