Doing work for a company which specializes in document and publication scanning, we generally get message or calls from customers who require their more uncommon, one off or fragile publications to be scanned and generally this incorporates some concern. It is really easy to undestand, they are old or sensitive books so it is considerable to get uneasy concerning giving them into someone else's hands to be scanned and created digitally.
It is certainly crucial that you take a look at the provider that may scan the books for you by checking out their qualifications (an ISO 9001:2000 is a good indication of a high grade scanning company, as their work is examined by a 3rd party, plus they have verified they produce fantastic outcomes), although there could be a tad bit more than that that concerns you, like the managing and fragility of the books.
Most skilled book scanning businesses can have what is known as an overhead scanner. That is basically a scanner that enables the book to be laid down flat facing upward, while a high tech digital camera photographs and looks at each and every page independently to collect the contents for OCR purposes. OCR, if you're not sure, is the most modern solution to scan a hand copy file and draw out the word information onto hard drive so the file is computer legible and word searchable. Since this overhead scanner is, for all intents and purposes, a top quality, technologically superior digital camera, this means that the pages will not be exposed to close up scanning systems, a problem for several of our clients because of a dread of the pages becoming ruined or faded because of the practice. Although we have never experienced this problem, it is still a concern for a lot of people today so it really is definitely better to be safe than sorry.
As soon as the over head scanning is done, the digital documents are then converted to the data format of preference, which is usually PDF file or JPEG. Once this is carried out any clearing up or alterations in contrast will probably be conducted and is seen by a quality control team before distribution to yourself whether for online reading through or on your computer via a CD, DVD or Memory Stick. This is the general procedure for rare book scanning, although remember this can change from business to business.
While we understand your issues on the topic and you are justified within that, the process is very harmless and is the least unhealthy for the book's sensitive pages and attributes as it can probably be. Upon having the book scanned and within a digital file format, the book can be retained eternally and observed for a long time in the future, and just what could possibly be greater than that for a true exceptional masterpiece?
Author Resource:
Steve is marketing and advertising director for Pearl Scan, an UK provider of rare book scanning and other varieties of book scanning . We take perfect care while we have your publications, constantly wearing gloves and using our longest established employees to take care of your book scanning.