HP has encouraged us to do some community service. I signed up to help at the library scanning in books of local history that are past copyright. First, I enlist Lynn, who then enlists her home-school friend.
Then, since there is only one slow scanner, I research a method to do it with a camera, sheet of glass, and cardboard box. It is faster, far less stressful on the brittle bindings, and lets us work in parallel.
I use software to straighten it out (deskewing), and brighten it up. And it works great! Here is an example, a 1929 Graduate Thesis that was retyped in 1940 as part of a WPA project. See if you can make it through the first two paragraphs!
I'm sure, like some of my railroad stuff, it will be of interest to someone, somewhere, at some point in time. Now it can be sent via email! I'm just glad I didn't have to retype the whole thing! Without typos or spell check!
Next up: the diary of a local man, written in long-hand in the late 1800's. That may be more interesting, but far harder to read. I'm hoping it contains some local railroad history . . .
5 comments:
Wow. The Church has missionaries doing this type of thing with records that have genealogical value. We had some back in Baltimore. They would move from town to town, stayed low key by not wearing name badges or dresses. (The women wore slacks instead.) I often wondered if it was boring or interesting. You make it sound interesting!
You are one clever and innovative person!
Awesome! You using scan tailor?
You are so cool. Maybe library science is a genetic predisposition.
Do I really look like that???????
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