Hello, I thought I would share my journey of digitizing my personal library (books that are not yet available for purchase on Logos/Verbum/Noet).
I have quite a collection of books and being a computer guy, and needing the shelf space, I saw the ability to use the "Personal Books" feature in Verbum/Logos as a great invitation to add not just my own writings, but digitize the rest of my library.
The benefits to me outweighed the risks:
I knew from the start that this would be a time consuming process that would involve some expense. However, I figured the "investment" would be worth it.
These are the steps I took and the resources I used that you might find helpful.
A couple things to note if you are going to do this:
I do wish that the personal books would sync to our tablets/smart phones, but at least they do sync across computers so I can work on this project on one computer and have my library on all of them.
Is it worth it?
In my opinion, yes! I have already found a great passage on Augustine from one of my personal books that I would have never thought to check (or remembered that I had) if the book was still sitting on my shelf.
I hope this helps some of you out there, I would love to hear your thoughts and tips on this process as I am about to send in another batch to 1DollarScan and start this process again for about 200 or so books!
This is a timely post as I was thinking through this process yesterday and today. I was researching 1dollarscan and was trying to figure out if it was worth it. I assumed the best bang for the buck is the plan you are on.
A couple of questions:
Did you find many books that caused you to span the set count with just a few pages for a given month? I assume that they use the number of pages that the publisher sets. For example one could be tempted to tear out a few pages if the count was just over a hundred value.
Did you have any books that had markings in it like underlines and such that messed up the OCR?
I was playing around with my sheet fed scanner to see if I could do this myself. I have OmniPage from awhile back. Somewhere on the web someone mentioned that FedEx (Kinkos) would be able to cut the binding on books for less than a dollar. It would be a slow process as I can only do 20 pages at a time in the scanner.
Glad you found my post helpful!
To answer your questions:
I hope hope this helps!
Also, I am not sure if this applies for new customers, but 1dollarscan is running a promotion (which is why I am about to send in a new batch). This would be a better deal than the Platinum membership - especially if you are using FineReader or omnipage and don't need the OCR or book titles (those can easily be added by hand and save some cash). You might want to contact them and ask them if it applies for new customers - but here are the details:
We will hold a “Buy one order, Get another order FREE!!” Campaign from5th August 2016 to 31st August 2016 to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!!Place any book order, then get a FREE Coupon for a matching number of sets!!In additional, we will add on OCR and Book Title Options for FREE to yoursecond matching set!http://1dollarscan.com/pricing.phpOur coupon will match the number of sets in your order up to 100 sets.For example, if you order 10 sets with the OCR option for $20, then you willreceive a coupon for an additional 10 sets with OCR and Book Title Optionsfor FREE!! That would be a $30 VALUE!! Order more and save more.
Chris K: Also, I am not sure if this applies for new customers, but 1dollarscan is running a promotion (which is why I am about to send in a new batch). This would be a better deal than the Platinum membership - especially if you are using FineReader or omnipage and don't need the OCR or book titles (those can easily be added by hand and save some cash). You might want to contact them and ask them if it applies for new customers - but here are the details: We will hold a “Buy one order, Get another order FREE!!” Campaign from5th August 2016 to 31st August 2016 to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!!Place any book order, then get a FREE Coupon for a matching number of sets!!In additional, we will add on OCR and Book Title Options for FREE to yoursecond matching set!http://1dollarscan.com/pricing.phpOur coupon will match the number of sets in your order up to 100 sets.For example, if you order 10 sets with the OCR option for $20, then you willreceive a coupon for an additional 10 sets with OCR and Book Title Optionsfor FREE!! That would be a $30 VALUE!! Order more and save more.
Thanks for the heads up. I got a response that this is for anyone who orders from them.
One other question - did you have any books that were old enough that they did not have an ISBN number? It appears in the terms and conditions that these books might be treated as Business Documents and hence more expensive. I think Business Documents were 10 pages to a set, From the site:
No prob in my case I did have a few books that didn't have an ISBN due to age or personally published. They Treated them all like books. I even had some magazines/etc and they counted them all the same, so I haven't ran into that issue. I don't know if it helps them, but it helped me to included an Excel file with each book title in the box/order I sent them that had the title, number of pages, and the number of sets.
Chris,
Thanks for writing this. I'm doing almost the same thing, but with a slightly different process and end result. I bought a heavy duty paper cutter, a Scansnap scanner, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9, and Abbyy Finereader 11 Pro. So I do the cutting and scanning myself.
I keep the end result a PDF though, with the OCR text placed under the image. I did this because I found that as good as ABBYY is, its not perfect. I'd rather have the scanned page available if I have any questions as to the text conversion.
So I can't put mine into Logos, but as of right now I'm okay with that. Maybe they'll include a PDF import function in a future version of Logos?
About how long do you spend on each book once you have the PDF from 1dollarscan?
Also, how's the scanning quality? I do mine in 600 dpi. do they offer that?
Chris K: The benefits to me outweighed the risks: I would be able to clear quite a bit of space from my bookshelves. Next time I move, I won't have a ton of boxes of books.
There is a problem with the copyrights on the books. Many state that you may not enter them into a electronic form. Also after you enter them into Logos you will still have to keep the hard copy books as while it may be legal to move them to electronic form without permission of the copyright holder as soon as you get rid of the hard copy you lose all rights to the book. You can copy a music CD to MP3 format but you then have to keep the CD if you want to keep the MP3 file you made from it. What gives you the rights to the MP3 copy is your ownership of the original. Yes, you can get forgiven for making illegal copies by getting down on your knees and asking for it but if you keep the illegal copy you have not repented of that sin and are thus not eligible for forgiveness.
Greg Masone: Chris, Thanks for writing this. I'm doing almost the same thing, but with a slightly different process and end result. I bought a heavy duty paper cutter, a Scansnap scanner, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9, and Abbyy Finereader 11 Pro. So I do the cutting and scanning myself. I keep the end result a PDF though, with the OCR text placed under the image.
I keep the end result a PDF though, with the OCR text placed under the image.
From their webpage ""FineReader converts scanned paper documents, digital images of texts and image-only PDFs into actionable formats such as Microsoft® Word, Excel® or searchable PDFs, enabling you to quote or entirely reuse text and table content without retyping.""
Why not save in DOCX format so that you could import into Logos? [[and Yes, I did read my own prior post]]
Hello David,
Because the OCR process isn't perfect. If I export to a .docx, I only export the OCR text, errors and all. If I place the text underneath the PDF image, I still have access to my original scan plus the OCR text.
ABBYY is maybe 99% accurate, depending on the page. I've tried to go through books and error proof them, but the amount of time necessary for it is more than I have.
Hey Greg, sounds like you have a pretty cool process going on - I know that no OCR Program is perfect - and I keep the PDFs in a Folder for reference for that and for citation information (page numbers/etc.) To answer your questions:
Greg Masone:So I can't put mine into Logos, but as of right now I'm okay with that. Maybe they'll include a PDF import function in a future version of Logos?
Greg Masone:About how long do you spend on each book once you have the PDF from 1dollarscan?
Greg Masone:Also, how's the scanning quality? I do mine in 600 dpi. do they offer that?
I would recommend that if you have them in PDF to go the extra step and do the Word conversion (I know FineReader does the conversion, I am not sure about OmniPage). That way you can actually use them in Logos, and still refer back to the PDF if something doesn't appear right or if you need to reference the original scan. It seems like you are doing a lot of work, but not fully utilizing the power of a digital copy by not importing it into Logos. I hope this helps!
David Ames: There is a problem with the copyrights on the books. Many state that you may not enter them into a electronic form. Also after you enter them into Logos you will still have to keep the hard copy books as while it may be legal to move them to electronic form without permission of the copyright holder as soon as you get rid of the hard copy you lose all rights to the book. You can copy a music CD to MP3 format but you then have to keep the CD if you want to keep the MP3 file you made from it. What gives you the rights to the MP3 copy is your ownership of the original.
There is a problem with the copyrights on the books. Many state that you may not enter them into a electronic form. Also after you enter them into Logos you will still have to keep the hard copy books as while it may be legal to move them to electronic form without permission of the copyright holder as soon as you get rid of the hard copy you lose all rights to the book. You can copy a music CD to MP3 format but you then have to keep the CD if you want to keep the MP3 file you made from it. What gives you the rights to the MP3 copy is your ownership of the original.
Thanks for the info - I did look into this a bit, and while I definitely do not claim to be a lawyer or have that type of knowledge, from what I have researched, it is a very gray area in terms of legality. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google for scanning their books AND distributing: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/10/copyright/u-s-appeals-court-rules-google-book-scanning-is-fair-use/ There are some interesting sections in this article that are applicable to the topic at hand, particularly:
“To a great extent what this case now stands for is the ability to use existing copyright and works in order to build new kinds of tools.” Crews added, “While Google is obviously a big company with the resources to be able to create a vast database and provide public access to it, I think that this decision will inspire researchers and others to create smaller projects.”
Also, I understand what you mentioned for the necessity of keeping the original, but there is also a copyright provision for making a backup of your media and resources in case they are lost or destroyed (this was something that was allowed for DVD and Blu-Ray movies - I don't have the source at this time, but I recall looking this up a few years ago for a different project). To my knowledge, that would apply in this case as well - as the books are "destroyed", they are not being resold, redistributed, shared, etc. Also, given these other points, it seems that it would be valid:
Furthermore, I know these book-scanning companies do work with publishers. 1DollarScan clearly states that it will not scan in any publication by McGraw Hill, so clearly they have been checking with publishers to legitimize their business - if not, wouldn't the publishers go after these companies for copyright infringement? There are a ton out there and if it was a legal issue, one of the publishers should have filed suit against these companies by now.
David Ames: Yes, you can get forgiven for making illegal copies by getting down on your knees and asking for it but if you keep the illegal copy you have not repented of that sin and are thus not eligible for forgiveness.
Yes, you can get forgiven for making illegal copies by getting down on your knees and asking for it but if you keep the illegal copy you have not repented of that sin and are thus not eligible for forgiveness.
I do appreciate you worrying about my soul, and while this topic isn't meant to be a theological topic, I do find it concerning that you seem to equate sinfulness with legality. If everything that was legal was virtuous and everything illegal was sinful, it would be a very scary world in terms of understanding "Truth". Laws change, God's Truth does not. Slavery was legal, but I would definitely say that it was still sinful. There are many laws today that allow things that I (and most Christians) would hold to be immoral/sinful and vice-versa.
I don't see what commandment would be broken in the above as I am not "stealing" from the copyright holder. They have been compensated and honored for their work, and I am not distributing or profiting from their work.
In any case, I do appreciate your spiritual concern!
Have you found there to be any way to get your personal books onto your mobile device directly without having to need to upload to the server (which it will not do). Even if I could directly copy it directly to my mobile device it would make it worth it for me to invest more in working with PB's since I do a majority of my reading on my mobile device.
Chris K:These are the steps I took and the resources I used that you might find helpful.
I do something very similar for a smaller subset of my books, again using ABBYY. The key difference is that I do the scanning myself using a Plustek OpticBook 3800. When I'm focused I can scan 5-6 pages per minute, so a 250 page book which would cost you $2.50 costs me 42 minutes. That's a poor return on my time until you member that I don't need to destroy the book. Even if the book was only worth $15, my 42 minutes saves me $17.50, which equates to $25/hour. I would also worry slightly about the copyright implications of owning a scanned copy of a book that I no longer own because it's been destroyed.
The OpticBook produces excellent quality scans, that give very, very high rates of OCR accuracy.
The other thing I do is have a Word stylesheet just for Personal books that has minimal formatting. I've found this helps slightly when importing.
Mark,
I've got an Optibook 3600 that's served me well over the years. Scanning at 300 DPI takes me about 20 minutes per hundred pages. So yeah, its a time investment, but you do save your book.
I've played around with ways to save my book after chopping off the spine, with decent success. I can fold back the covers on paperback books and just cut the actual pages, leaving the covers attached to the spine. Once I scan them in my Scansnap, I put them back in between the covers and it looks like a regular book.
I'd hate to drop a stack though! But I found the book can actually lay totally flat on a table now without me having to press down on it!
For me I love the utility of a digital book, but at the same time I also love the physical book itself. My dilemma is one of space, as I'm sure every bibliophile runs into eventually!
Any copyright issues with doing this? Or since you do not get the hard copy back, is this considered just changing the format of a book you own, and not a violation of copyright?
"In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church," John Wesley
Michael McLane: Have you found there to be any way to get your personal books onto your mobile device directly without having to need to upload to the server (which it will not do). Even if I could directly copy it directly to my mobile device it would make it worth it for me to invest more in working with PB's since I do a majority of my reading on my mobile device.
The only way I have found to do this is to keep the PDFs in a Folder in my Google Drive, then I can open the PDFs from Google Drive in my mobile phone or iPad and read them that way. This would also work with Dropbox/etc. Hopefully, Logos will support the integration of Personal Books in the Mobile Platforms soon!
I hope this helps!
Michael Childs: Any copyright issues with doing this? Or since you do not get the hard copy back, is this considered just changing the format of a book you own, and not a violation of copyright?
See the above posts for the discussion on Copyright - there seems to be two minds on that one.
Greg Masone: I've got an Optibook 3600 that's served me well over the years. Scanning at 300 DPI takes me about 20 minutes per hundred pages. So yeah, its a time investment, but you do save your book.
Does your scanner have an autofeed? Or do you have to do each page by hand? Does it do automatic 2 sided scanning? I have used my Neat Desktop to scan in some spiral bound things that I didn't need cut/etc. and that has worked well, though it was time consuming to make sure the pages didn't stick together or jam. And, like you, I could only do about 20 or so pages at a time.
Mark Barnes: When I'm focused I can scan 5-6 pages per minute, so a 250 page book which would cost you $2.50 costs me 42 minutes. That's a poor return on my time until you member that I don't need to destroy the book. Even if the book was only worth $15, my 42 minutes saves me $17.50, which equates to $25/hour.
When I'm focused I can scan 5-6 pages per minute, so a 250 page book which would cost you $2.50 costs me 42 minutes. That's a poor return on my time until you member that I don't need to destroy the book. Even if the book was only worth $15, my 42 minutes saves me $17.50, which equates to $25/hour.
That's an awesome price breakdown. I definitely appreciate it. Have you factored in the cost of the scanner as well? Or did you already have it? I know the big thing for me is the time as I don't have a lot of it - so my fear is that the Second Coming would come before I got done with the scanning of the books :)
Would you care to share the Word stylesheet you use? That might be very helpful!