Bookshelf reduction: To digitize or not to digitize

[vivaldirules]

Are you comfortable replacing your dead tree books with ebooks as they become available or are you a digitizing warrior dedicated to the immediate elimination of paper from your bookshelves? I often get the urge to digitize the hundreds of thousands of pages on my shelves. So I scan a few pages. After half an hour reality sets in and I purge the urge forever - or until it reappears a few weeks later. Life is just too short to spend it this way and what I wish for just doesn't mesh with what I can reasonably do. How about you?

[AnemicOak]

If there was a service that did it for me I might do it.

I have one book that a friend scanned & OCR'd for me & I've messed with it a bit, but each chapter is basically just line after line of text so I've had to go in and put it into paragraphs using the pbook as a guide. After two chapters I decided there were better ways to spend my time. I'm sure I'll mess with it again sometime & do a few more chapters and quit again.

The do it yourself digitizing thing's definitely not my cup of tea. I've got over 2,000 fiction books & hundreds of non-fiction books. I'd love to have at least the fiction all in e-form, but figure it'll never really happen.

[jasonkchapman]

Waaaay too much effort. I'll settle for a "from here on" tactic and buy replacements for anything I just have to have in e-format.

It's the same thing I did with my LaserDiscs.

[RWood]

Some I have, most I haven't. Most I will not.

For me the the criteria is simple:

1. It must be in the public domain
2. It must not be available on PG or DP or on one of their future lists
3. It must not be available free on the Internet (sites with a lot of ads and spyware do not count as free)

I have done a some. I may do more.

[Patricia]

I agree entirely with RWood's criteria.

[HappyMartin]

The urge to scan and digitize everything on your bookshelf is, I believe, a compulsion to overly orderliness. P books were acceptable in the past and remain so. They are just not as good as e books.

[MaggieScratch]

I would like to really reduce my number of pbooks, but I don't think I'll ever be rid of them entirely (nor do I want to be). I'm starting with downloading Gutenberg texts and formatting them nicely for Mobipocket, or finding free nicely formatted files elsewhere (like the MobileRead databases). That will clear out three or four shelves on its own. After that, I'll see where things stand. I am hanging on hopefully to the idea that the Kindle will increase the likelihood of backlist books being digitized commercially, and in many cases I'll happily rebuy for a reasonable price (say, the price of a mass market paperback, or a little less--in many cases, I would have to replace falling-apart paperback versions anyway).

[hidari]

As a former Pbook hoarder, I understand the possessiveness that one has for one's books. Fortunately, Travel and living in 4 countries for the last ten years has helped me purge that feeling. They're were just too many books to justify moving them around. So, I gave all of mine a way to second hand shops and friends.

Since that time, I always give my pbooks away to friends and it feels good. To give a good book to another is a great way to share experience/knowledge. Now, that I am an ebook addict, I am finding many books that I had owned years ago on mobile read and gutenburg to name two.

So, If you really want to convert give all your pbooks away...

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

I would like to really reduce my number of pbooks, but I don't think I'll ever be rid of them entirely (nor do I want to be). I'm starting with downloading Gutenberg texts and formatting them nicely for Mobipocket, or finding free nicely formatted files elsewhere (like the MobileRead databases). That will clear out three or four shelves on its own. After that, I'll see where things stand. I am hanging on hopefully to the idea that the Kindle will increase the likelihood of backlist books being digitized commercially, and in many cases I'll happily rebuy for a reasonable price (say, the price of a mass market paperback, or a little less--in many cases, I would have to replace falling-apart paperback versions anyway).

[nekokami]

I'd digitize all my books if I could find time to do it. As it is, most of them are packed in boxes because I don't have room to shelve them in our current house. I re-read a lot, so I find this extremely inconvenient.

There are mixed feelings on this forum (and elsewhere) on the legality or morality of acquiring digitizations from someone else for books one owns in paper, but that is a possibility in many cases.

For most of my collection, no legal ebook versions exist, so that route is not an option, even if I could afford to repurchase all my books (which I can't).

[VillageReader]

I have purchased a small number to replace dead tree books, typically as an alternative to carrying a book on a business trip (sometimes I can borrow from the library for travel, too - like Soul Mountain & Upcountry, both of which I read on a recent Asia trip).

Digitizing myself is too time consuming. Large scale replacement would be far to expensive since the dead tree collection is probably somewhere over 1500 books.

So, new books have been overwhelmingly ebooks (probably about 3 to 1), but there are still things not available as ebooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nekokami

There are mixed feelings on this forum (and elsewhere) on the legality or morality of acquiring digitizations from someone else for books one owns in paper, but that is a possibility in many cases.

There may be questions about its morality, but in most countries represented on this forum (with the notable exception of Switzerland) there's no doubt at all that downloading copyrighted material from the internet is illegal, and owning a paper copy of the book doesn't change that!

In many countries (eg the UK) it's even illegal to scan a book or rip a CD that you've bought.

The legality or otherwise of copying material for private use is a complex one. For some idea of the range of issues involved, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing

and:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Use

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In many countries (eg the UK) it's even illegal to scan a book or rip a CD that you've bought.

I assume this is the case in the U.S. as well. I've tended not to worry since no one but me will ever see the digital copies that I create from my own pbooks. I can't see how anyone is harmed by it. I have a few books that I've read several times (e.g., James Herriot, Jacob Bronowski, Gandhi) and I'm dying to digitize those at least. I've already had to buy two copies of some of them because they're so ragged. I suppose the harm is that I won't be buying a third copy of those!

[The GreatGonzo]

Is this not also a question of e-reader capability?
I mean, right now I don't see any point in digitizing any of my books that contain large amounts of color illustrations - there's just no good way of looking at them. (Obviously, I', not thinking of my PC as an e-reader.)

Old paperbacks, on the other hand, are perfect candidates - black & white, easily scanned, don't care if they're trash afterwards. Out the door they go ...
Also, considering how expandable the Iliad's memory is, I don't even bother with OCR - as others have pointed out, it's way too much work.

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by The GreatGonzo

Is this not also a question of e-reader capability?
I mean, right now I don't see any point in digitizing any of my books that contain large amounts of color illustrations - there's just no good way of looking at them. (Obviously, I', not thinking of my PC as an e-reader.)

Old paperbacks, on the other hand, are perfect candidates - black & white, easily scanned, don't care if they're trash afterwards. Out the door they go ...
Also, considering how expandable the Iliad's memory is, I don't even bother with OCR - as others have pointed out, it's way too much work.

It's a good point. So far, the documents and book chapters I've digitized I have left in pdf format (or converted with pdflrf) because I feel that if I were to go the next step use OCR I would pretty much have to read the thing to make corrections and format it. So there's hardly a point to do that. And, yes, my Sony Reader even with the 2Gb SD card is pretty much full with those large pdfs and lrf files from pdfs. But you say paperbacks are easily scanned. I don't see anything that's easily scanned. For me with my HP scanner, everything is a slow painful chore.

[bingle]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

I assume this is the case in the U.S. as well. I've tended not to worry since no one but me will ever see the digital copies that I create from my own pbooks. I can't see how anyone is harmed by it.

In the US, courts have not ruled definitively on whether converting your own CDs or books into digital formats ("format shifting") is legal or not. It is absolutely illegal for DVD movies (not necessarily for VHS movies), because of the DMCA.

There is a large amount of business devoted to helping consumers digitize CDs, photographs, and VHS movies - it's all operating under a bit of a gray area.

Basically, anything that applies to a CD->iPod conversion will apply to a book->Reader conversion, but the same is not true of movies, software, or anything else that has a technological means of copy-protection that must be bypassed.

Interestingly enough, it's definitely illegal to copy an ebook (a DRMed ebook), but not necessarily illegal to copy the same book in print format. Even if the title is in the public domain!