What Scanner Do I Need?

I am interested in buying either a used or inexpensive new scanner to use to scan my historical book collection. I want to save them electronically because most are no longer available, and in the event of a fire I still have the research materials available to me. What type of scanner is going to make my life easy 'translating' 500/ 200-700 page volumes into an electronic format?

What electronic format is going to be most portable and secure from damage for at least 25 years, barring me doing them physical harm? Am I going to be able to 'download' from Scanner to say an 'SD' card on my card reader? I am aware that Flashdrives do not like to be used for extended periods of time as they heat up and can be made unusable (so I've been told). If possible I'd like 1 book per medium, which is why the SD card seems attractive to me. I know they are used for photos, but can they be used for other media storage? Thanks

 

Decent scanners are pretty cheap these days. The last one I got was about $30 several years ago and it would be fine for your purposes. What scanner you need basically depends on what quality you need your output to be. Just for archival reasons I don't see why one of the cheaper models wouldn't work.


The "being secure from damage" issue has much more to do with the storage medium than with the file format. Personally I would just save everything as high quality JPEG. JPEG doesn't have an alpha channel, but again, for your purposes this isn't really important. JPEG is a pretty wide spread format, so you shouldn't have to worry about finding a way to open them in the future. It also has decent compression, so you will be able to fit many files on one storage medium.



As far as over heating a flash drive, I wouldn't worry about it. The time that it will take to scan, process, and save the files will be 1000 times longer than it will actually take to write the file to the device. Say it takes you three minutes to scan/process/save one page, and it only takes .5 seconds to write the file to the device. It will have 179.5 seconds to cool down out of every 180 seconds(not to mention turning pages and positioning them on the scanner).

I write 4GB+ files to my flash drives several times a week and they get hot, BUT I have never had one fail(excluding the ancient 256mb flash drive I had that failed after being stuck to a rare earth magnet for hours in my pocket).



SD cards would be fine too. They're essentially the same medium as a USB flash drive. Although there is some question as to how long memory chips(such as flash drives and SD cards) will actually hold data before it starts to become corrupt. Initially the thought was that they wouldn't last as long as conventional hard drives, but now that they've been on the market for some time now it appears that they are lasting longer than projected. I'm not really up to date with how long they are seeming to hold up now. Remember that nothing is infallible. If it's something really important you might want to think about backing it up by various means. Maybe flash drives and DVD-R, or even one recordable bluray with all the files on it as a back up for your backups.



Basically any storage device can be used for any type of data. You might want to research which storage mediums are known for their longevity.

 

Just make sure that the lid of your new scanner lifts up enough to allow you scan book pages. As you probably appreciate it is difficult to scan book pages due to their binding in the middle.

Some times I resort to leaving the scanner cover open and just covering the book with a towel or similar to reduce extraneous light from appearing on your scan.

Bazza

 

Would the 'PDF' or 'Jpeg' format be favored for books with pictures and text being scanned?

 

With regard to my question of a flashdrive 'overheating' issues; I ask them from the point of not having any long term ownership of a flashdrive. I have one now for the past year and 'save documents to it'. I was told by a neighbor that if I sit 'reading' off my flashdrive plugged into my laptop for extended periods of time, that the flashdrive's life is shortened? I'm thinking from your opinion he is misinformed. I would use which ever format/medium I 'save to' with a 'netbook' type device for viewing.

Thank you to everyone helping to answer my questions, as these books are irreplaceable in the event of a fire or natural disaster.

 

I presume you'll have your scanner either directly connected to your computer or indirectly connected via a network, i.e. through a router. So, why not scan your pages directly to your computer's hard drive? And, then, of course, backup on DVD or whatever.

That's 500 books ranging from 200 to 700 pages per book, right? I don't believe any scanner is going make that easy. You're facing a monumental task.

 

INDEED.. there's nothing out there that's going to turn the pages and correctly position them for you, so whatever the case, you have a ton of work ahead of you.

 

Yes, that's why I'm asking the questions I am concerning the easiest method to do this process.

I will have the scanner connected to my computer. I was planning on 'saving/sending' the pages directly to whatever device they would reside on/in such as a flashdrive or SD cards. Would this be the simplest/error proof way of doing the transfer from scanner to media?

I did not want the storage bulk issue of using CDs or DVDs, which is why I am leaning towards individual SD cards or multiple flashdrives. In the event one SD card gets damaged the whole collection isn't damaged.

Yes, up to 500 volumes will be scanned, though I'm thinking of just working on the most irreplaceable 100-200 volumes first. After which I am considering donating them to a research library that could then make them available to the general public. I have always felt the books were 'locked away' by being on my 'private bookshelves' which does not serve the purpose of a book IMO.

I just need a scanner with a large bed as some books are bigger than 11 x 8.

 

Yes, this I'm aware of, but being disabled I have the time to do it. It will be a big burden off my shoulders to not worry that the books could be lost forever. Any brand of scanner more dependable, easier to interface with my computer?

 

I believe you will find most models of scanners do not go above 8.5 x 11.7. So, you'll probably have to spend more to get a flatbed scanner that can handle larger page sizes. I saw one that goes up to 11.7" x 16.5"; see http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16838135002. It's a USB device and has no slots for SD memory cards or other size memory cards. So, you would need to scan from it to your computer.

If I were doing this project, I definitely believe I would burn the books to CD or DVD, after scanning them. For one thing, they are a less expensive storage media than flash drives. I think I would also want to put each disc in a jewel case and have a printed label inside the cases to identify each book.

 

Size and shape of the scanner are more important to your use than the brand name.

But know, that USB Flash Drives are not considered as permanent storage.
They can and often do burn out under heavy usage.
The internet is full of reports from users who have trusted their precious photo's etc, to a Flash Drive and then find out the FD no longer works.
I've had two of them go DEAD on me and fortunately there was nothing on them that I didn't already have saved to my HD.

Your fastest and safest option is to scan directly into a folder on your hard drive and when you have amassed enough data, burn it to a DVD.
A properly cared for DVD will last 30 years or more.

Good Luck!
Shadow :cool

 

These are home made book scanners.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-Speed-Book-Scanner-from-Trash-and-Cheap-C/
http://www.diybookscanner.org/

Or something like this:

http://www.plustek.com/usa/product/series.asp?sid_set=17,2&page=Education%20and%20Voice%20Scanner

I think it ranges from $250 on up.

A home made lego automatic book scanner:

http://www.geocities.jp/takascience/lego/fabs_en.html

An automated one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlOQuuLYavY

 

Your answer, and another post about flashdrives not being reliable for long term storage, have me trying to decide what route to go. Having each book on a separate CD would be nice, but 500 CDs do take up quite a bit of room compared to SD cards or flashdrives. What I may do is assemble the books on CDs in groups, so as not to have to have as many CDs to look through to find particular books/subjects. Your suggestion is helpful and may be the route I take.

 

Thank you for your post, it has given me another option. Would it be feasible to trust using a Portable Harddrive for the storage application? Even if just between scanning the book and placing it on a CD at a later date? What's the minimum size MB/G portable harddrive I would need?

Reason I don't want to send the scanned pages/books to my computer harddrive is to avoid getting all the work corrupted by anything malware or virus like that could be on my computer in between scanning and being online. I run Malwarebytes and Avira, and did the Full protocol here and have a clean machine today, but can't count on that being the case in the middle of this project.

Is it a CD or DVD I want to use? I'm confused about which of these is necessary because the cost is different; and then which type? Some books contain photos but not all.

 

By happenstance I had a friend drop by who does cleaning jobs and they had just come from a real estate office. He told me they asked him if he wanted an old copier, and being a pack ratrolleyes he said "ok". Turns out he got a 'HP OfficeJet 5510 All-in-one Printer Fax SCANNER Copier:confused He knows I've wanted to do this book project for some time now and told me I could use it until I was done. It has a smallish glass top 8 x 11 1/2? area and the lid lifts up vertically. I figure I can remove the lid until I'm done and use a towel in place?

It came with the power cord and a cord that runs to the computer.....but no instruction manual:cry I figured I could at least practice with this with some of the smaller books to get started. What are the 'simplified instructions' of how to use a 'All in one' type scanner?

 

The main difference between CDs and DVDs is that DVDs hold much more, actually, about 6 times a much as CDs. CDs are normally have a 700MB capacity while DVDs hold about 4.3GB. So, if you want to put multiple books on one disc, DVD would be the way to go.

Yes.

I have no idea how many bytes would be consumed by an average book. But, you could simply remove a book from your external hard drive once it's been burned to disc. So, you could probably work with any external hard drive of 250GB or larger. Just keep in mind the larger the hard drive, the less often you would need to burn to disc and remove files from the hard drive. Even so, I think I'd not accumulate a lot of books on the hard drive before burning them. Having them on CD or DVD is really the safest storage media.

 

DVD-R is a good storage medium for your application. For one they're dirt cheap, they hold a lot of data, and they last long if they're properly cared for. Maybe even keep a master copy on an external hard drive, then two copies on DVDs. That way you're backed up in case of failure.


I would burn two copies of everything, one of them you will only touch if the first one stops working. DO NOT write on them, and the only thing I would store them in would be a jewel case. I have kept burned DVDs in CD folders before and every one of them was ruined. One little scratch and you have read errors.

 

Removing the lid is a good idea, if it is easily removable (and replaceable).
I can't do it easily on my multi-function Hp printer/scanner. :cry
Most scanners are A4 in size (8.5 x 11). I dont think I've seen a scanner bigger, I guess proper industrial ones go to A3 in size, or bigger, but they would be pretty expensive I guess.

As for a manual, go to the HP site and specify your model. I would imagine that HP would have an on-line manual that you could print out.

Bazza

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< this is what worries me about this type of media storage but by making 2 copies i would have some peace of mind.