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Originally Posted by chamekke
Has anyone written out a step-by-step process for unbinding and scanning books? Or rather - recommended the most effective way of doing this?
I have an old flatbed scanner at home (laborious option) and access to a MFD (multifunctional device) at work that will scan in an 'automated' way, but tends to jam up (faster but could tear up the pages). Also, I have OCR software at home - but not at the office. Any suggestions as to how to begin without (1) driving myself insane or (2) chewing up my books?
Unfortunately I have a fondness for books that will probably never make it into e-book format, so jailtime with icebreaker is starting to look increasingly attractive...
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I haven't done any scanning myself, but from lurking about here I've picked up a little info...
There are instructions floating around on the forum somewhere about how to build a do-it-yourself OCR cradle, if you've got a digital camera and a handy streak. Ah,
here they are. It doesn't involve hacking the spines off but it makes use of stuff you've already got lying around. Probably faster than scanning page by page without automation.
Otherwise, you can always take a book you don't like very much, slice off the spine, and try putting it through your machine at work (so if it gets eaten, no big deal!) A guillotine-type paper cutter will give you a clean edge that's less prone to jamming the scanner, if I'm recalling correctly.
If you've got some spare cash you might look into buying a scanner that does the whole auto-document-feed thing, though the good ones tend to be a bit pricey. Check out the workshop forum here - it has loads of information!
