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You might consider using a camera system with a vacuum table. Commercial vacuum tables are pricey, but you can build a suitable one for $200-$300, mostly for the pump. There are instructions online. The big upside is speed. Thanks, Cary On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 1:12 PM Will Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > First up, thanks for the feedback so far! > > I think I need to give more context. > > First, we're not going to be scanning books with these. We're scanning: > paper. Old loose-leaf paper. Hundreds of boxes of the stuff. Flatbeds > were designed for that exact medium, so although I do like camera-based > systems, I'm leaning towards flatbeds in this instance. > > At the moment, we have two scanners that we can use for this project: an > Indus Bookscanner 9000, and an Epson Expression 10000, a slightly older > model of the one several of you have recommended. Ordinarily that would > be plenty: we have just 3 full-time special collections staff, plus some > student workers. > > The grant was funded through the CARES Act for the purpose of employing > humanities academics who would otherwise be out of a job due to the > pandemic. It got approved, and so now we have 13 people to work on > digital humanities projects, including a fair bit of digitization. > Having just two scanners has suddenly become a major bottleneck.[1] > > Complicating matters, the entire grant process was rushed. The pandemic > hit, Congress went into overdrive and began dishing out money and > wanting it put to use FAST. The NEH thus had a short turnaround time. > We got slightly less than a week to write the grant, at a point when a > large number of the university's staff were furloughed. Writing it fell > on the shoulders of one faculty member, who did her best as fast as she > could. And it worked! It got approved, in the amount of $300K, which > is frankly amazing. > > But as we began looking at it, we discovered that virtually all of the > funds are earmarked for salaries. Technology budgeting was minimal; we > get four laptops and a couple of software licenses out of the grant > money, and that's it. Scanners are not an allowable expense. > > So now we've got a whole lot more people than equipment, and are having > to pull money from other budgets to get the equipment, at a time when > we're anticipating the necessity of budget cuts due to lower enrollment > in fall due to the pandemic. > > So while I would love to get a few more Epson Expressions, I don't think > we can really afford their price point, which hovers around $4K each. > I'm hoping to get away for $1500 or less. > > This whole pandemic thing is awful. > > Will > > [1] I should note we do have more than 2 scanners, it's just the other > ones are in use in public areas, for ILL, or are sheet-fed scanners. We > are leery of feeding irreplaceable documents that are 70+ years old > through those. > -- Cary Gordon The Cherry Hill Company http://chillco.com