Book and Document Scanning
The most important factor is to be able to digitise them without harming them in any way whatsoever.
A Bookeye Scanner is a pretty big piece of kit. You can get an idea of this from the size of the computer keyboard and monitor, and a normal size book. |
A normal desk top flatbed scanner could be used, but that is essentially
rather like a photocopier. A book or document needs to be laid down flat
on the glass surface. That's where the handling problems begin. A book needs
to be pressed down flat, and that can very easily cause damage to the spine
and bindings. Handling a 500 page book 500 times doesn't help much either.
So we take a totally different approach. A system whereby the book or document is not in contact with the scanner. Essentially, it is rather like using a camera to take a photograph of the book or document. We want to do things in the best possible way, and by using the very latest technology. That's why I selected the Bookeye Scanner from Imageware. If a job is worth doing, then let's do it well. The Bookeye is perfect in every way for the task. |
The Bookeye Scanner is produced by Imageware in Germany. It is specifically designed for scanning books and documents.... and it does the task perfectly. |
The scanner is particularly easy to use. Turn the page and click on one
of the buttons on the control panel or use the foot switch.
The only contact with the book is the gentle turning of the pages with a couple of fingers. It couldn't be more friendly or gentle for an old and valuable book, or a large document such as a map or a will. It scans both left and right pages of the book in one pass, and then digitally divides them into two separate page images. The book doesn't even have to be pressed open flat. It copes with that perfectly, and there is even a mode where it can automatically digitally "straighten" the curved part of the page where it dips into the centre binding. Each double page takes about two seconds to scan and save.... turn the page and click the button again for the next one. It saves each page to disk on the fly, with each book saved as a separate volume, and then with an additional software module, it can create a PDF file of the whole book for viewing using Adobe Acrobat Reader software. |
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Matthew doing scans of a very large format (and very thick) book, one
of the five volumes of The Topographical Dictionary of England of 1831.
The maximum scan area of our Bookeye Scanner is A2. |
Now that we have this wonderful scanner, we want to put it to use! Not only for the books for the Archive CD Books Project but also for publications for family history societies and also digitising books and paper records for commercial businesses of course.
But one of the most important uses to which it will be put will be done for free.
If any library, museum, or record office would like to contact me, then I will arrange to scan and digitise any books or sets of documents that they have - at no cost.
The results will be produced on CD and they can have copies of the CDs for free too. The catch? Well, there isn't one, except that we want to have the scans available on CD for the Archive CD Books Project, so that they can be shared by us all - all over the world for our genealogy and history research.
- Scanning & digitising for Local Studies Libraries, Museums & Record Offices, etc.
- Scanning & digitising for societies
- CD Production facilities
- Book scanning techniques
There are huge collections of records out there which can only be accessed by visiting the library, museum or record office. They are unique. Things such as wills, land deeds, maps, cemetery records, etc. Those documents need to be handled too, and continuous handling is not good for them. So the documents can now be viewed from a high quality digital image on CD instead. I don't claim that a CD is archival quality - it isn't - but it does make viewing books and documents easy! And that definitely helps towards the preservation of the valuable originals.
Rod Neep
