In a message dated Fri, 5 Jul 2002 3:07:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b at dd-b.net> writes: >Obviously you need to have a flatbed scanner to do this, and OCR >software. The package I used is downloadable for a 15-hour trial >(hours of actual use, not elapsed hours). And you need to be willing >to risk or sacrifice a copy of the book in question; we don't have a >budget or a pile of free copies of the books sitting around anywhere. > >It was easiest to do with the pages loose rather than bound, which was >pretty easy to arrange -- for $0.50 Kinko's cut the binding off for me >on their big guillotine paper cutter. This does have the downside of >ruining the book; but a used paperback in poor condition works fine >for scanning. Doing it with the pages bound probably ruins the book >anyway, through pressing it down flat on the scanner. When we get to >the rare books, it may be worth considering alternatives, like >photographing the pages with a digital camera. I scanned my copy of _Athyra_ on a flatbed scanner, and it didn't cause much damage. It won't be mistaken for a new book, but it's still in better condition many other books I purchased used. In fact, the only "damage" seemed to be a tilt to the spine, and that disappeared after being wedged on my bookshelf for a couple months. BTW, whose job is it to correct all the mistakes the OCR software puts in? For those of you who haven't tried scanning text, current state of the art OCR software is about 99% accurate. That means about 1 out of every 100 *characters* will be wrong. This is why Eric Flint over on rasfw said its cheaper to simply hire a professional typist to retype the whole thing. --KG