School Yearbook Scanning Project.

[WillScan]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience on how well this kind of scanner would work for scanning yearbooks. I have done one using a regular flat bed scanner and the results are great when you can cut the book apart. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would love to hear them.

If this is a viable use for this type of scanner then I will attempt building a dual camera tethered setup running Ubuntu.

[daniel_reetz]

It's going to have a little less resolution than a flatbed scanner, but it has the advantage that you don't have to cut up the books. Are these old yearbooks? What's your intended output, or where are the scans going?

[WillScan]

The ones I have currently are from 2 to 50yrs old from various schools. The plan is to scan them to PDF files, and then release them onto the web to be archived. The scanning and release of the resulting files will be open to all that want to participate. My personal goal is scanning all that can be found from my hometown school district, but I am willing to scan every one that I can get my hands on.

[Aibo]

I am working on a similar project that involves capturing images and text. Have you started?

[WillScan]

I am still mostly in the planning and partial testing phase. I am still collecting materials, and I have the Nikon D40 tethered to my Ubuntu laptop, and that is working fine.

[postscangrinder]

Hi Willscan

I'm also slaving away at a similar project:

http://www.classorama.com/pages/classphotos.html

Check under several of the Colleges listed and you'll see I've digitised numerous school magazines, an arduous task that is ultimately very satisfying but also threatens to do my head in at times. As of 08/01/10 every single magazine scan on the website has been individually tweaked by hand, which is how I stumbled across this forum, desperate to find some method to make my task less like mucking out really filthy stables. I fully intend on adding to my website for years to come, it began as a personal space to host my own panoramas then I began adding class photos and has evolved into a community-minded project. I digitise archives (personal, public) working on a barter system, if a school grants me access to an archive I return the original photos/mags with pdfs and all the original scans in return for using non-printable copies for my website. When I first started out a couple of years ago I messed up the whole `printable' aspect of my scans for a couple of the schools and need to redo them at some stage. It took me ages to get my head around the printsize of an image as opposed to the viewsize onscreen.

I really need to find a way to speed up my post-scan processes so I can stay on top of things, I'm not scared of the work involved but I must find a way to shave days/weeks from certain aspects of the job and if I can discover how to batch deskew thousands of scans at a time I might get outside and see the sky

If I'm further along than you are and you have any questions feel free to get in touch and I'll help if I can.

Later
Mark