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A robot that can rapidly turn the pages of both small and
large books while scanning the text is being used by librarians
at Stanford University. The robot, which is the size of a
sport utility vehicle, can scan at speeds of more than 1,000
pages an hour.
The device brings librarians one step closer to being able
to make scholarly and scientific knowledge available on the
Internet. To achieve this goal, the texts of millions of books,
journals and magazines must be digitized by turning each page,
flattening it and scanning it into a computer database.
Until now, this task was done by students or low-cost workers,
but the machines are already generating interest from libraries
and private and nonprofit groups working to digitize books.
Although digitizing machines are faster and often more accurate
than manual systems, they are also typically more expensive.
The machines become cost effective on projects larger than
5.5 million pages, which suggests that the majority of digitization
will still be done by hand for the next several years.
In India or the Philippines, books can be scanned and digitized
for $1 to $4 per book. However, there are costs incurred for
loss of quality control.
One of the biggest challenges facing groups trying to digitize
books is addressing copyright restrictions. Such restrictions
appear to be tightening as a result of new federal laws like
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
However, according to librarians, a digital collection could
vastly improve the availability of knowledge and information.
Reuters Health May 10,
2003
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