Comments on: Do It Yourself Book Scanning

By: craig c

craig c — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:12:01 +0000

I believe Google have been using book scanners which read the distance of the pages, including the bend. So that when scanned they appear as flat images with little or no black depth marks on that often comes with book scanning. We usually carry out scanning using both ways. But the fastest way is always to slice the book and feed scan the pages if you are able to.

http://www.pearl-scan.co.uk
http://www.pearl-repro.co.uk
http://www.4document-scanning.co.uk
http://www.forms-data-capture.co.uk
http://www.microfiche-microfilm-scanning.co.uk

By: Gegenmodell zu Google Books: B?ºcher selber scannen und gemeinsam bereitstellen! | Leander Wattig

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:20:25 +0000

[...] etwas. Anders Daniel Reetz mit seinem Do It Yourself Book Scanner. Reetz und sein Scanner werden hier folgenderma?üen [...]

By: Do it yourself and low cost book scanner : Stephan Humer – Internetsoziologie

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:45:06 +0000

[...] about a book scanner for less than 300 bucks? Have a look! This really is a nice idea, but I¬¥m honest: I¬¥m very happy to use our professional scanner here [...]

By: Orin

Orin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:41:49 +0000

Benjamin, a lot more goes into an academic book than just the author’s ego. As much as the author of an academic work is rewarded by seeing their name in print, you can’t really say the same about the people who edit the text or sit there and fact check the damn thing. At the moment, when you buy a book, you make the assumption that someone has probably bothered to follow up on those pesky footnotes to see that the cited source (a) exists and (b) says what the author claims. As books become less renumerative (which seems inevitable) they *will* become less reliable.

By: Who needs Google? DIY book scanning-Blown To Bits « FACT – Freedom Against Censorship Thailand

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:59:16 +0000

[...] http://www.bitsbook.com/2009/10/do-it-yourself-book-scanning/ [...]

By: Benjamin Geer

Benjamin Geer — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:14:33 +0000

Oh, and here's another homemade book scanner, made out of Legos, that turns pages automatically.

By: Benjamin Geer

Benjamin Geer — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:13:04 +0000

Nearly all the books I read are academic texts, which, as is well-known, don’t make any money for the authors anyway. Moreover, they contain the results of research which, almost invariably, was funded by taxpayers’ money. So we’ve already paid for those books. And the authors are salaried academics, so they don’t desperately need whatever measly royalties they might be able to get from the sales of those books. As I see it, academic texts should therefore be public property.

Should I ever manage to get a book published, the most important thing to me, as an academic, would be to have the book reach as many readers as possible. Including people in poor countries, where an academic book from the West costs about as much as a month’s salary for a person earning the average wage. It would therefore be in my interest, as well as in readers’ interest, to make the book freely available in electronic form.

By: Mister Blue

Mister Blue — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:45:05 +0000

I just got a Scansnap S5100 which scans both side of the pages and has a fast 50 sheet duplex scanner.

The only disadvantage is that you have to rip out the pages and therefore you loose your book once you are done scanning.

On the other hand, you get a nice PDF on the other side which works great with my tablet pc.

By: Eric Hellman

Eric Hellman — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:11:16 +0000

I think it’s interesting that one of the DIY scanners talks about dumpster diving for books to digitize. In the non-digital world, the value of physical books does go rapidly to near zero- certainly you’ve been to a used-book sale and paid a quarter for a great book. What is our moral obligation to authors when we pay a quarter for a print book? And is our moral obligation any different if we digitize a book out of a dumpster?

I think we should abandon the use of the word “piracy” when talking about book copyright. After all, real pirates were more about extortion than they were about theft. When you think about who’s aiming big guns at civilian shipping and demanding treasure in the book business, it’s not Dan Reetz! Maybe we can talk about book counterfeiting instead?

My report from Reetz’s presentation is at http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2009/10/revolution-will-be-digitized-by-cheap.html

By: Harry Lewis

Harry Lewis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:37:35 +0000

Rebecca,

That all makes perfect sense, but I am puzzled about what’s legal and illegal, as opposed to right and wrong. Is it a violation of US copyright law for me to digitize a book I own? And if it is legal, does it become illegal the moment I give my book to someone else, which as you say has the effect of halving the number of copies sold, since we can both read it simultaneiously?

In practice, the answer might depend on intent, timing, numbers of books scanned, and so on. But we shouldn’t count on common sense getting anyone off the hook on matters of copyright–otherwise we wouldn’t have damages of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dolars for kids downloaing a few dollars worth of music.