Hi, Maithe. Family and graduate school are such important things. I can see why you feel the time crunch. It sounds like you're pretty comfortable with Openbook, and that's a good thing. Do you know about using express batch mode? It can speed up the process since you don't have to hit a button to scan the next page. You can get a good rhythm going that way. Also, if you're getting a lot of stray characters and punctuation marks, you may find that turning off Openbook's despeckle option and the light text on dark background option will help you get a better scan. Those options are really designed to work with things like newspapers, hardcover books with a decorative background, and other specialty books. Openbook has them turned on by default. For your average paperback, those settings can actually degrade OCR performance. I keep them turned off and only turn them on when I'm actually scanning material that needs the extra help.
I also have two very different approaches to the time situation that might help you. I'm looking for solutions to your time issue since I can see that time is your most scarce resource right now.
1. Have you considered forming something like a scanning circle? Since you have a lot of fiction books but little time, how would you feel about looking for people who share your tastes who might be willing to scan some of your books and then mail them back to you? One thing I've learned about our volunteers is that we each have different assets to offer. Some of us have lots of time to scan books while others are able to provide books to be scanned. Still others validate our scanned books while doing things like riding the subway to work or sitting in their garden with a glass of iced tea. We have people on the list right now who have scanners but don't have any books to work on. If we use each person's strengths well, we all win. I don't know what kind of books you like to read. I'd be willing to bet that there are people here who like the same things you do. We have some volunteers who will scan books even if they aren't keenly interested in the subject. Others, like me, tend to focus on certain genres because we read our books cover to cover before submitting them.
2. Have you considered enlisting the help of one of your children or working something out with a middle school student in your extended family or neighborhood? My friend Vincent pays his neece and nephew in ITunes credit for scanning books he needs for work. When I was working full-time, I gave a twelve-year-old neighbor girl $10 a week for an hour and a half of scanning each week. This was before Bookshare was around, and paying her to do the work gave me time to be with my daughter who was a toddler at the time. You'd be amazed at what a twelve-year-old girl can do if you show her how to use a scanner. I think she liked doing it in part because of the money, but I also made it fun for her by letting her listen to music and bringing home a bag of chocolate chip cookies for us to share when she was finished. I heated the cookies for 30 seconds in the microwave, and they tasted homemade. (smile) Because of her work, I had a nice scan of a mystery to read on the commute to work the next week and a happy little girl who got to spend time with mom every weekend.
I hope at least one of these ideas helps you out. Good luck with grad school.
Monica Willyard maithe007 wrote:
Hi Monica!Thank you for the welcome and quick response. I use Openbook and my scanner is an Epson. I don't have that much time to scan as I am in graduate school and have a family...no time! *L* I usually use the two-page scan mode in Openbook, but some of the books are too big to do this with. Also, textbooks just do not come-out that great...too much of the * and ? show-up.
