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

On 18 Jan, 23:42, "ARWadworth" blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

You could scan them in portrait orientation, that way the book only
has to open as far as a right angle.

"ARWadworth" blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPakj.79604$c_1.53453@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

Photograph them.

You can then OCR them to save the text as a RFT document.

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:42:36 GMT, "ARWadworth"
blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

How many pages does that add up to?

"ARWadworth" blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPakj.79604$c_1.53453@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

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

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:42:36 GMT, "ARWadworth"
blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

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.

ARWadworth blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

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

"ARWadworth" blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPakj.79604$c_1.53453@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

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.

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:42:36 +0000, ARWadworth wrote:

==================================
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.