Google scanning library collections

[Wilson,Alane]

The 2 companies that have been mentioned as having "hands off"
digitizing capabailities are Kirtas 
http://www.kirtas-tech.com/ and 4DigitalBooks
http://www.4digitalbooks.com/default.htm. Google isn't necessarily using
either as reports don't name or describe the machine and it may be a
proprietary development (as mentioned in one report, Google developed a
scanner during its now dormant Google Catalogs project).

Kirtas claims a capture rate of 1200 pages/hour and 4DigitalBooks, 1500
pages/hour. Their web site says one operator can manage four machines. 

The New York Times article that first mentioned the Stanford Project
Ocean referred to the "Swiss-designed" robot that could scan pages of
text...that would have been a 4DigitalBooks machine as the Kirtas
machine is based on Xerox PARC technology, according to their web site. 

What's most interesting to me are the few reports that note U.S. Patent
Application No. 20040122811, filed by Google co-founder Larry Page
called "Method for Searching Media." InternetNews.com has a good article
here http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/print.php/3446211 titled
"Google Magazine Search?"



Alane Wilson, MLIS
Senior Library Market Consultant
Marketing and Library Services
OCLC
800-848-5878 x4386




-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 2:50 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: Library News from Google ... *and* UM!


> A quick calculation using the figures above suggests an average scan 
> rate of 3200 volumes per day (assuming 365 days/year for 6 years) at 
> the University of Michigan site alone.
> 
> I am very curious about the process that enables this level of 
> throughput.
> 
> Tito Sierra
> Digital Library Initiatives
> North Carolina State University

I think it's called money...

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com