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High Speed Text To Digital Aquisition?

Posted by Cliff on from the preserving-old-print-articles dept.

K asks: "As a long time subscriber to many magazines(Linux Journal, Dr. Dobbs, Byte, etc.) and as a person who can't throw away anything written for fear it might one day be useful, I was wondering if anyone knew of any high speed scanners that would allow me to archive these magazines for (possible) future use. My house is just getting too clutered and I would hate to lose these data. In addition, are there any legal questions about this. I have purchased the magazines so I believe that I should be allowed to archive them in any fashion I choose. Is this wrong?"

3 of 7 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Don't throw them away! by unitron · · Score: 2
    Sell them on eBay. Give somebody who missed them on the newstand (newsstand?) a shot at them before you make them irretrievable landfill fodder.

    Books and magaazines, including the ads, are an experience in and of themselves, and as convenient as a CD with all the text in editable copyable form might be, it just ain't the same.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  2. Magazines should provide digital versions by harmonica · · Score: 2

    German computer magazine C't provides a digital version of the magazines of one year on CD-ROM for an additional DM 10 (USD 5) for subscribers.

    Unfortunately, this is not the norm. Other magazines (like Spiegel) provide a digital version, but this one costs DM 260 (USD 130) - for anyone, also for subscribers.

    I think it would be best to convince publishers to offer digital versions (or access to their online archives) for a small fee, at least for subscribers. They shouldn't have to pay again for the same content. The scanning is just too much work.

  3. High Speed Scanner = Expensive by paulywog · · Score: 2

    Well, I'm working on a project right now, actually, that involved high volume document imaging. The company is looking at imaging several thousand pages per day on an ongoing basis, but then again, they're also buying $15,000 Kodak department document imaging scanners.

    There are a couple of problems.
    (1) Very high speed scanners that are used in document imaging are often only b/w. So, you loose all of the nice pretty advertisements.
    (2) You obviously have to cut apart all of your magazines on the spine to get them to go through an auto feeder.
    (3) The paper is likely to get jammed because its glossy and so thin.
    (4) You'll spend better than $5,000 on any scanner that will do better than 10 ppm. And then you probably can't get duplex scanning.

    But, if you want a solution that works great, look at a software package called Ascent Capture from Kofax (http://www.kofax.com ), and throw in a Kodak 3500 document scanner or better.

    Or if you want a solution that is affordable, invite all of your friends to bring their scanners over and give them beer and pizza while
    you all have a scanning party. It should only take about two hours to get through a years worth of Linux Journal.