The New Hampshire State Library is excited to announce the Digitization in a Box program. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the New Hampshire State Library.
The program includes a circulating collection of scanning equipment to digitize photos, documents, and slides.
The scanners can be borrowed and reserved by contacting NHSL. Checkouts and reservations will be managed through the NHSL Koha catalog. Note that all scanners must be transported carefully and are not eligible to be transported via the ILL van service. Please make arrangements for pickup, delivery, or training with the Technology Consultant.
The State Library owns four Plustek OpticBook A300 scanners. These scanners have a unique nearly margin-less design perfect for scanning books without breaking the binding of old or fragile items.
Notice how the book only needs to be open 90 degrees in order to get a full scan. (Larger books will require the scanner to be elevated or positioned at the end of the desk.)
This scanner requires a free software download from Plustek:
https://plustek.com/us/products/book-scanners/opticbook-a300-plus/support.php
The Book Pavilion software is simple to use. After installing the software, simply connect the scanner to power and to your Windows computer via USB and run the installation wizard. Once installed, open the Book Pavilion software.
The software offers a few handy features:
If you are scanning a book or magazine with consistently-sized pages, you will want to preview the image. Once the scanner previews the page, you can manually adjust the scan size, if needed. This will save you time during each page scan.
Setting the software to rotate every odd (or even) page will also save you from needing to manually rotate the pages.
But if you do need to rotate a single page, just click the rotate button.
Each file can contain multiple scans and each scan can be in color, grayscale or just text.
Note that the same buttons are on the scanner.
When you finish the scans, transfer them to your preferred folder.
At 300 dpi in grayscale, this is a FAST scanner. Each scan takes about 2-3 seconds. The lid does not need to be shut for a good book scan.
This small 180-page book took about 45 minutes to scan.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HwiRDvGQqWUjgazjq83kUNGLl8SP1XRw/view?usp=sharing
The scanner requires the following software to be installed. Please note that the software will not open until a scanner is connected and detected by the Windows computer.
https://plustek.com/us/products/book-scanners/opticbook-a300-plus/support.php
The State Library owns five of these Epson scanners. The scanners can digitize photos, 35mm slides, 35mm film strip and other items up to 8.5" by 11.5".
Epson Scan Utility and Drivers:
https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/Perfection-Series/Epson-Perfection-V850-Pro/s/SPT_B11B224201#drivers
The State Library owns three of these large scanners. This larger-format scanner can managed a 12" x 17" scan and can scan 30 slides at one time. This scanner must be transported by private vehicle and not placed in the ILL van.
Required Software
Epson Drivers & Utilities:
https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/Expression-Series/Epson-Expression-12000XL---Photo/s/SPT_12000XL-PH#drivers
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the New Hampshire State Library.