Scanning tech

[BURGESS, EDWIN DAC, CARL]

We have a number of moderately brittle books, mostly 19th and early 20th 
century.  We also have customers who want copies, and our present face-down 
copiers are more damaging to the originals than I m comfortable with.  In 
some cases, we are considering converting the book entirely to electronic 
image, and storing the original artifact for preservation.

I ve been seeing face-up scanners that allow the operator to place a 
three-dimensional artifact such as a book face-up on a table, with an 
overhead scanner to read the page.  Looks somewhat like a planetary 
microfilm camera.  Output can be directed to a digital copier, a laser 
printer, a disk drive, or any other device on a network.

Does anyone out there have experience with this kind of equipment?  Faults, 
virtues, details?  Have seen the Minolta Epic 3000 system, some Xerox 
equipment.

Ed Burgess
U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Library
Fort Leavenworth, KS
burgesse at LEAV-EMH1.ARMY.MIL