Atiz BookDrive Pro or Book2Net RGB

[Keri Cascio]

I sent the questions regarding our Atiz setup to our Digital Projects team.
Here are their answers:

Q1.  Book Positioning - are you able to successfully scan tightly bound
materials?  Is the book cradle sufficiently adjustable for a range of
materials/bindings?  Do you feel the system is gentle enough on fragile
materials?

We have been able to digitize  bound materials in a variety of conditions
and sizes and, with reasonable care, we have had good results.  Regarding
tight bindings, the platen and cradle present a good range of visibility,
but of course there can still be problems. We felt that our capture rate
was quite good with fragile materials, although we never expected to get
the high end of ATIZ's stated capability.

Q2.  Have you had any problems scanning the following types of materials:
bound newspapers, loose photographs, letters (unbound)

We do not use the ATIZ for these materials. Newspapers would probably be
fine, but there are better options for unbound items. For example, the same
cameras could be used on a standard copy stand.

Q3. Are you using the software included with the scanner to process
images?  Is it sufficient to the task or do you use additional software,
e.g. photoshop?

We do use the included software, but also use others. It all depends on
your material and your desired output. We will sometimes use use OCR
software and/or Photoshop. A recent camera upgrade (to one of the
recommended cameras) has posed some processing problems with the BookDrive
Editor Pro software that we are currently sorting out, but we don't
necessarily think this is caused by the editing software.

Noted issues:

- Pages sometimes cling to the platen, so extra care must be taken when
lifting the platen on brittle books.

- Because the overhead lamps caused glare, we used lights  that we already
had on hand. (2 Kino Flow DIV-200 lamps with stands positioned in front of
and behind the ATIZ.)

- We occasionally needed to use additional props to get an even angle at
the beginning or end of thicker bound material. We also used props to raise
very small books because focusing very small items from a distance could be
problematic.

- We were not satisfied with the resolution on the lower end recommended
camera.

- We needed to purchase a wide angle lens to focus to the edges of large
volumes.

--

Keri Cascio

Director, Innovative Technologies and Library Resource Management

Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology

5109 Cherry St.

Kansas City, MO 64110-2498

816-926-8765 (phone)

816-926-8790 (fax)

casciok at lindahall.org

http://www.lindahall.org

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2012-02-29
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