On Sun, 09 Nov 2008, Craig Smith asked why the bound volumes of "Music
Trade Review" (MTR) were cut apart for scanning.  For reasons of economy
and speed, spines of bound publications are frequently guillotined off
to facilitate scanning through an automatic document feeder.

From the viewpoint of a commercial service center, scanning into
microfilm would require that each individual page be separately
scanned, a process that no service center, in-house or not, would
entertain -- it's simply too costly.  Regrettably, guillotining off the
spines effectively has permanently damaged the physical collection in
the eyes of a committed collector.

In the case of the MTR, the spines were already guillotined at the time
that they were acquired from the New York Public Library (NYPL), which
microfilmed the collection before relinquishing it.  That process
resulted in 89 reels of microfilm which can be viewed only in the NYPL.
Copies of that microfilm can be purchased at $80.00 per reel, plus
handling and shipping.  You do the math.... :-(

The fundamental weakness of the microfilm is that while information may
be gleaned by manual transcription, images are not at all useful for
reproduction emerging out of research requirements aimed at a book,
pamphlet, monograph, formal paper, etc.

Both MBSI and AMICA have posted their Journals on their respective web
sites.  Fortunately for MBSI, a complete collection of its Journals was
available for destruction by guillotining off their spines to facilitate
swift scanning through an automatic document feeder.

I'm scanning my unbroken collection of AMICA Bulletins by scanning each
page individually.  I am not prepared to destroy the intrinsic value of
my Bulletin collection by guillotining off their spines.  I am prepared
to remove staples to simplify the process, as they can always be
replaced to restore them to their original state.

The process I am using dramatically increases the time needed to scan
every issue.  The dominant reason for continuing with this process is
image quality.  Every issue is a mix of color, continuous tone grey
scale, and black & white line drawings.  This process facilitates
adjusting every scan for color or grey scale black & white, adjusting
brightness and contrast and black & white threshold for the purpose
of acquiring best possible image quality for every page.

For obvious reasons, this process will not ever be considered by
a commercial service center -- far too costly to the customer.  Only
possible by a volunteer association member, likely retired, prepared
to do so at no cost, as I am doing for AMICA.

> There are a number of places where books and magazines can be
> scanned without destroying them.  In fact, there is a company
> in Victor, New York (near Rochester) that makes the premier
> machine which does just that.  It turns the pages at an
> amazing rate and takes a photo of each page.  The cost is
> minimal, less than a quarter per page.  They even have
> software to do character recognition so that you can search
> the text.  Check out http://www.kirtas.com/ 

Agreed.  I am working with the Kirtas folks, encouraging them to work
with Special Collections folks at universities and libraries.  Special
Collections typically are treated quite differently than conventional
holdings.  All too often, we find situations where photocopies at $0.25
per page are routine, but scanned images emerge at $10.00 per page.
Yes, $10.00 per page for scanning.

Photocopies, like microfilm, are useful for manual transcription of
information, but reproduce photos very poorly.  Scanning on the other
hand, produces high quality images suitable for serious research.

Of huge concern, that I'm working with Kirtas on, is that far too many
universities, museums and libraries equip themselves with conventional
flat bed scanners.  For rare books, use of a conventional flat bed
scanner should be absolutely forbidden.  High risk of inflicting
damage.

Scanners that facilitate book scanning by nothing more physical than
page turning is absolutely the way to go.  But most are pricey, forcing
these institutions to apply for grants to pay for this equipment and
its maintenance.  Most institutions employ people to write applications
for grants, but getting equipment (such as Kirtas) applications into
the queue is extremely difficult for Special Collections.

Thoughts of others?

Regards,
Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm