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scanning records



From: Daniel Sokolow@MCGRAW-HILL on 01/28/2000 12:21 PM


To:   archives@listserv.muohio.edu
cc:
Subject:  scanning records

I too noticed the "invalid" - though I admit I've been called sick before :)

Anyway, I actually have a contribution to make (though it's worth is, as always,
debatable).

I think the nature of the scanning equipment you buy depends on both the amount
and the condition of the materials you want scanned, the quality of the OCR
(optical character recognition, the part that actually picks words out for
indexing), and of course the amount of money you can afford.

There are numerous high speed scanners out there that will scan upwards of 40
pages/minute.  This is fine if everything is the same size, weight (i.e. card
stock and regular printer paper will cause more difficulties), and if they
aren't fragile materials.  I don't know what the OCR abilities of these machines
are, but if it turns out they can't pick up all the words properly, you're no
better off than you were before.

The problem is that if the materials are fragile &/or irregular, you'll end up
having to scan the loooong......sloooooww.... way.  And I mean long & slow.
You're standard (and therefore cheaper) system will take anywhere from 30-60
seconds to scan _each page_.  I said EACH PAGE.  Fine if you're scanning a
couple of documents quickly, but bulk stuff will take you more hours than most
of us have to spare.  Then you have to hope your conversion software picks up
everything properly.

 When you add the (eventual) cost of migrating the data to the next generation
of hardware & software (and you will), the idea of digitizing anything that
isn't already in an electronic format becomes more prohibitive than it seems
when you start.  Make darned sure you are prepared for the costs and the
potential problems, and then feel free to spend the dough.

Otherwise, I reccomend you think at least twice about the idea.

DS


Daniel Sokolow
Corporate Archivist
The McGraw-Hill Companies
1221 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
daniel_sokolow@mcgraw-hill.com

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