A set of The Electrical Educator books came my way today. Big fat green things dated 1931 and in very nice condition. They have been stored in a loft for the last 40 years.
Any ideas on scanning them as a normal scanner needs a flat sheet and I do not want to bend the bindings too far.
Adam
You could scan them in portrait orientation, that way the book only has to open as far as a right angle.
Photograph them.
You can then OCR them to save the text as a RFT document.
How many pages does that add up to?
Posh libraries have special scanners for this - but they cost, and take a lot of labour to drive, so are quite rare.
Sorry, that doesn't really help you :-) But I reckon photos are a good option these days.
cheers, clive
Use the oldest scanner you can find. Lower resolution, but much better depth of focus. Old HPs are nice.
You can also saw much of one side of the case off many scanner designs (the guides are in the middle), allowing you to get closer in to the spine without damage,
You might also make a simple book cradle, to support the book opened to a safe angle (otherwise use a cushion), then use the scanner upside down on top of it.
Please record metadata correctly when you scan it. get the page numbering and orientation right at least! It's a nightmare when you;'re just left with a diskful of scanned images and no idea what they all are.
Tear the binding off then you can fit them into the ADF.
I've seen a design on the 'net for a 'V'-shaped (actually upside-down 'V': in ascii-art, " ___/\___ " shape) jig you can make with a mirror & plastic sheet etc. You can put the old book, opened just enough to fit into the 'V', and then the mirrors & scanner optics allow you to read the face-down pages. I suspect this was originally use to scan large transparencies. You might be able to find the design from this, if I come across it I'll let you know.
This would probably need modification to work with non-transparent books - and I would be very interested to know if anyone has successfully made a modified version - but is similar AIUI to the versions of the scanners that libraries use, especially with old/ valuable/fragile books.
HTH J^n
Does it really matter? the regulations have superceded all electrical since then. ;-) Why do you want to scan a few thousand pages?
Just keep them in those large sealable plastic bags if you want to preserve them and store them in dark conditions.
================================== You could use the type of hand scanner which preceded affordable flatbed scanners. In case you don't remember this type of scanner it was a rather chunky item which was rolled down a page; different scans had to be 'stitched' together. It would be a tedious job but quite doable if the end result was worth all the effort.
There should be plenty of these scanners around in good condition - I've got one lying around somewhere.
Cic.
I find this quickest, I find bright daylight best but would like to have a remote shutter release, I once photographed a full page of the FT and e-mailed it to america as a fully legible gif. My cousin has recorded his family album dating back to 1911, this way and put the pictures on CD.
AJH
The HP Scanjet 4600, which is a see-though panel, about 1cm thick, that you lay on the document to be scanned. You can scan all sorts of odd things with it that don't work with a flatbed scanner. It is not a current product, but there must be some around.
Colin Bignell
Great fun! With cheap hard drives OCR hardly seems worth the trouble any more, unless of course you wanted to compile indexes etc. Even more fun.
I agree with the camera idea though. An old Coolpix 995 with a shutter release cable would be ideal
It might be worth asking your local library or archives department if they have a preservation scanner. Unlikely, but possible. Or there are commercial services that will scan your material for you. Otherwise, I think your best bet is to set up a good camera and photograph them.
Regards Richard
Libraries photograph such books. Usually they have a two camera setup with the book supported in a frame so the cover is open about 90 deg. One camera photographs one page and the other the other so two are done at once.
I made a simpler one camera on swing arm setup to photograph some large old ledgers for someone. It used the same sort of support for the book and a wooden swing arm holding the camera so it could be swung from photographing one page to the other quickly.
Overall it was much quicker than scanning. as well as being easier on the books.
Snaptor software lets you scan or photograph from a book, corrects the "curl" distortion from the spine and converts to PDF for you.
Trial version
Lots. It looks like it would be a very long job.
Adam
Just a few small changes :)
Eventually I wanted to share it on the web. Other people might like a look.
It was my intention to put the books themselves in bin bags somewhere dark to save them.
Adam
I had 6 volumes of "The Great War", first edition printed in late 1919,worth a few bob nowadays only thing is the were stolen. I kept them wrapped in plastice cellophane in lever boxes in the loft.
Adam,
Try asking at
Edgar
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