Scanning

In response to Dan Traister's query about scanners, I have been
interested in augmenting the photocopying of rare books, or perhaps even
eliminating photocopying of rare books by using scanners instead.
Compared to copiers, scanners seem infinitely less damaging, and offer
some distinct advantages because the hand-held variety can be used
without opening the book more than is necessary to drag the scanner body
over the page, which at most is 90 degrees.  The hand-held scanners are
compact enough to make it possible to scan pages which would be very
difficult to photocopy safely, if at all. >From this standpoint, it
seems the use of scanner should be encouraged, at least for a trial
period to see if they can be used successfully. My experience with them
was a bit disappointing in how much fiddling and dancing with the little
buggers it took to get a decent copy, plus the hardware configuration
that produced a good copy.  But I haven't used the latest generation of
devices and I suspect they are getting better and maybe easier to use. I
was using a Logitech hand-held device that was probably their first one
on an IBM clone.  Since I am a Mac person, I have wanted to use one on
my own machine, and have seen one which I like better because it travels
in a straight line better, i.e. it has better set of rollers it glides
on--can't remember its name, but it was slightly bigger than Scanman and
was black--and was the only other hand-held scanner which I've seen out
there.  I also think they might work better on Mac from an output
standpoint, producing better "copies" on a good laser printer. I only
have to laugh at the thought of scanning photocopies, but you can see I
am looking at this a little differently.  The real limits I see are the
practical ones of getting scanners to work as efficiently as
photocopiers, if there is any hope to substituting photocopying with
scanning.  There seems to be a ways to go on this one!

Robert Espinosa
Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:29
                Distributed: Tuesday, November 26, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-29-003
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