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STANFORD
Utilizing Robot for Mass Digitization
The Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources (SUL/IAR) is utilizing a robotic page-- turning and scanning device for mass digitization of bound print materials as an integral part of the libraries' Digital Library Program (DLP). The robotic book scanning device, called the Digitizing Line (DL), is housed in a new book scanning lab that is part of the DLP's effort to increase online access to the vast intellectual resources of the University Libraries.
Manufactured by 4DigitalBooks in Switzerland, the DL can produce digital images of bound print materials at throughput rates as high as 1,160 pages per hour. It can handle a wide range of book sizes, a variety of book structures and a variety of paper types, and produces high quality black and white, grayscale and color TIFF images at resolutions of up to 600 dpi.
The DL is supported by a comprehensive hardware and software system. Designed in partnership with the imaging hardware and software firm Image Access of Boca Raton, Florida, the system allows for the manual creation and automated capture of descriptive, administrative and technical metadata, and the creation of derivatives for online access in JPEG, image-only PDF, searchable PDF, and plain text formats. The workflow engine includes modules for manual entry of descriptive metadata, automatic cropping, splitting and image processing of open-book scans, manual review and treatment of images, uncorrected conversion of images to text (via optical character recognition or OCR), and creation of searchable PDFs and text derivatives. The software allows operators to associate chapters or other subsections of a book with ranges of page images for the creation of PDF bookmarks or encoded texts. The system also automatically captures comprehensive technical metadata for all master TIFF images and derivative files.
The two primary pilot projects to test the DL in a production environment, and help refine the software and processing workflow of the book scanning lab, were to be completed in May 2003. Once the pilot projects and resultant refinements in the workflow and image processing tools are completed, the first large-scale project planned for the new lab is the digitization of approximately 2,500 books published by the Stanford University Press.
http://library.stanford.edu/depts/
diroff/DLStatement.html
www.4digitalbooks.com
www.imageaccess.con/
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