So last week I presented a project for
en masse digitalization to my university, in terms of their old texts (thesis', simple format essays and college texts, both student and teacher-made) for the digital library campaign that they've just recently started. They've already digitalized a hefty amount of text; however I realized their process is a tad rudimentary, radical and has already permanently damaged some text.. actually it sucks big time.. They've destroyed a lot of texts already; a sad scene to say the least.
I initially recommended to add OCR for cheaper reproduction of thesis and depending less on rudimentary photocopying, which the peeps at the university agreed (with a huge grin on their face, since it seems that, as any other university, money-saving and rubbing their elbows matters ALOT). Now I'm no engineer nor an erudite of any sort but for some darn reason they seemed impressed of my process of OCR. Some of the higher ups thought that OCR was a self-invented bogus name just to make things look fancier. Them dudes didn't know about my pin-up sweetheart Abby, so they ended up liking the project even more. At the beginning they even thought I was talking about employing people to manually do the paper-to-text work processing.. cheesus parmesan rice are they old-fashioned..
Now, they want me to find out a way to maximize the speed of text-to-image processing as well as minimizing damages in texts.
To say the least, as much as they are worried a lot about the $$, these nuggets are the only university in my chihuahua-looking thirld world country that actually CARE about books... largely the reason I decided to spend my study funds in them... (aside from that).. Now my main issue is the OCR processing of old, rusty text and most importantly, how to get images of texts bigger than a scanner. That's my main concern.
As I said, I'm no enlightened engineer of any sort so I worked with a few ideas already..
Taking into consideration the size of texts, I came up with the following:
- Big texts are damaged because of two things: they're old as frozen hell and are being handled like a feisty toddler... also because they're being forced to fit on a small scanner. Having said this, they are turned upside down, opened up like the suggestive example given above; that's where the damage begins.
- Based on the aforementioned, scanners are totally obsolete. Big text needs to be handled and moved to the very least; keeping them as steady as possible is a priority. Keeping them looking upwards would be best, since we avoid the weight and issues on adjusting text-to-scanner process.
- Scanners by themselves are slow and tedious. Minimizing speed of processing each page is required without losing high quality.
- SCANNERS ARE OBSOLETE. That's the main conclusion. They're slow, they damage and are thus counterproductive
The only best option is a camera.. SLR to be precise. Lighting is also required to replace the scanner's big shiny string of slowness. I've already counted the lighting on a scanner and measured it with a bit of the photo studio the Art Department this university has. Perfectly "doable".
I also thought of setting the tripod with the book directly below (90 degree angle), setting the pages at a certain angle (still experimenting and finding out the best camera/text distance vs. text angle)... If any of you are good at numbrers and can help me out on getting an nice pic angle without distorting the text, I would greatly appreciate it.
Also. Have any of you have an idea on how to mount something like this. I can definitely go full Chuck Norris 4x4 Rambo Ranger Mambo Tango style on this and just set up a tripod, studio lighting, and the book on a simple mount and start taking HQ pictures,... but would there be any way of setting up a mount that helps on sustaining the camera and the text (and if possible, the lighting as well?) This is what I came up with... sorry for the crappy paintjob:
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IF.... in any case this works in the slightest I will get the project approved and do one of 2:
1-keep on training this puppy and be part of the leads (since I started up with this whole zip zoopity bip bop) and ensure this project works out (even if no tips or suggestions are provided, I'm sure I can find something that'll make things work out)
2-provide a sound, well-fundamented project and hand it to ACTUAL engineers that can work on this matter (I'm studying for Education Sciences, Elementary School Teacher... noothing to do over there..)
Either way if I do any of two I will have the following as the booty (since they are by no means going to pay me for this):
-a good reputation among the students and future alumni which will grant more access to any wicked projects I have in mind
-possible school funding and backup depending on how radical the project is
-(most importantly) FULL, UNRESTRICTED, UNLIMITED ACCESS TO EVERYTHING IN THE LIBRARY AND EVERYTHING "LIBRARY" RELATED.. even the old text, rich in history, details and my god, the aroma of aged paper. SWEET BABY JESUS I CAN ALMOST SMELL IT RIGHT NOW
-lesser restriction in terms of book lending; normally it's a 14 day timeframe, to me it could be times2.. also lesser restrictions on the amount of books.. as long as I return them without any scribblings, torn pages or damages of any sort... which I GLADLY oblige to and agree.
-be one of the few that are first in line of book dumping (every year or two the university dumps old, obsolete books).. I dont care if they're old, they'll be MINE.
hubba hubba
It's a pretty big deal for me as you can see
Any suggestions, ideas, tips, recommendations, corrections, superior knowledge of any sort are greatly appreciated. I gotta go hit the weights for a bit and keep working on ideas.
Enjoy your reading
Cheers,