Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Have you built a mobile digitization lab?

I'd be interested in receiving comments from anyone who has built a mobile digitization lab.
  • What type of scanner did you use?
  • What did you sacrifice for the sake of mobility?
  • Did you have problems with the equipment because you moved it too much?
Your comments and lessons learned will be greatly appreciated, not only by me but by readers who are thinking about such an operation.


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5 comments:

Yvette Hoitink said...

I use a digital camera (Canon EOS 300D) with a tripod and a laptop. Using the remote control option (space bar takes a picture) I can take about 600 pictures per hour.

I use this setup for creating digital images where readability (not preservation) is the goal.

t.wildi@gmail.com said...

In my context I need the possibility to digitize mobile if...
... I'm planning and calculating a large digitization project and want to check certain things (how good does the OCR-software read the originals for example).
... the originals can't be moved out of their original place.

To do check-scans I use a small scanner like a CanoScan LiDE 90, which can be powered over usb. The quality of these scanners is sufficient just to check what difficulties could arise with the OCR-Software (in my case FineReader). I run a single license of FR on the laptop, where as in the office we run FR on a three-machine-cluster.

If the originals can't be moved I often take a Nikon D200 with various fixed focus lenses (24/2.8, 35/2, 60/2.8 Macro, 85/1.8). It's important to use a sturdy tripod and a good head (ArcaSwiss Ballhead in my case).

For Audio I use a Laptop with Adobe Audition and a RME Fireface 400 DA-Converter. I also have a pair of Fostex 6301 loudspeakers to control the sound very roughly. If it has to be very mobile I take a Marantz PMD 670 which is handy to copy for example DAT at a customers place or digitize reel-to-reel on an original machine.

Anonymous said...

Check Casio YC400. It's portable.

Unknown said...

We are interested in setting up a small scanning lab. I was wondering if anyone has lab plans that they'd be willing to share.
Thanks.

a said...

Panjab Digital Library, panjabdigilib.org is a mobile digital archive facility based in Panjab in the northern india, imagine a digital library on a bike or a scooter. There guys have done a lot of by going to different parts of Panjab and India as well. Its mostly supported by volunteers.