Hi everyone,
First, MANY THANKS to all of you who replied. This information will be greatly helpful to us, MUCH appreciated.
Many others responded to me, asking if I'd share the results. Below are most of the responses I've received so far - with names omitted to protect the innocent (smile). Hope you all find the comments as helpful as I did.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Don Juedes
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RESPONSES TO SCANNER INQUIRY:
Image output should be a minimum of 72 dpi resolution (but ideally upwards of 300 dpi), with the capacity to produce images with dimensions of at least 1200 X 1600 pixels. It should allow for output as TIF, JPG, and BMP files at the very least. There needs to be accommodation for USB drives, access to networks, CD-burners, or some other way to "transport" the files. The other issue is color calibration and correction. Maintaining color scanning settings is a challenge.
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We have about 12 scanners around our building. We have them strategically placed near the bound and unbound periodicals, design books, reference books, and reserve desk. In two years, the mutilation of our design books and journals dropped by 80%. We like to think that is because of the scanners.
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I purchased inexpensive Canon scanners ($99 at Staples). They don't always last long, but there is a one-year warrantee that the store honors, and I always had a spare on hand. We didn't keep Photoshop on library work stations, but since they were part of the academic network, students could save the files to their own accounts. The more savvy soon discovered that they no longer needed to use the color copier, since they could scan and print to the color printers for free. All the power to them. The students valued the scanner highly. There was a small amount of mediation required, but most students were able to follow the instructions I posted, believe it or not.
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We've had one for a while and it's been a success on a number of levels:
- Less razoring of books and journals - now they can capture what they want and take it to a lab to "play" with it.
- More interest in the library's non circulating materials, like magazines and reference
- Easy to transport - we currently have a zip disk/CD burner combo so the images are portable. I'd recommend linking it to a student server via your network so that images can be saved directly to the student's own file - eliminates the need for storage media.
- No charge - cheaper than a color photocopier.
Downside can be a waiting list if it turns out to be a popular item.
We use an Epson 2400 Photo scanner (get one that takes 14" long side as a minimum to fit larger materials) and basic Photoshop Elements 2.0 on a Mac G4. It's a standalone setup (at the moment - see above) and has no other function than as a scanner station.
We now have it setup on a large work table as a standard workstation stand doesn't have enough room for all the books, magazines, etc. that students want to scan.
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We're a medium-sized academic library; within our 80+ public computer set-up (our 'Information Center'), we used to have 2 scanners set-up at 2 disability computer stations that anyone could use.
However, the scanners began to be monopolized by patrons (mainly scanning personal photos, artwork/art photos from books, etc.), so we re-configured these scanners to do ONLY text enlargement (making them truly accessible workstations).
We then set up 2 password-protected 'multimedia workstations' (with all the bells and whistles) and each one has its own scanner. Patrons have to be logged in by IC staff, the password is never given out.
This new set-up seems to serve us quite well (been in place for about 1 year). Of course a lot depends on your own operation and your patrons, your busy times, etc.
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SOFTWARE
I can't tell you much about software. We have no say in that here*the high priests of Systems make such decisions, based (if we're lucky) on our expression of functional needs. If your situation will be similar, try to get the systems crew to agree *not* to make software changes whenever they find it convenient. Once you've got a body of users who are familiar with your software and equipment, major changes should be made only between academic years or, less ideally, between school terms. It's difficult to get computer geeks to accept the idea that ordinary mortals just want to be able to perform a familiar process to get a job done, and that they'll resent having to learn how to use new software in mid-term.
HARDWARE
If you're planning to install a flatbed scanner, get the largest one your budget and space will permit. Most people will only want to scan standard-sized pages, but you'll get some who have double-page spreads or odd-sized personal material.
Make sure your scanner-equipped computer can burn CDs, and have a supply of CDs available for sale. In general, the more different ways your users can save files to physical media or send them to other computers, the better. Try to set things up so naive users can't save files to the computer's desktop. Ideally, they should have access to one and only one save location on the computers hard drive. If files will be purged from that location on a regular schedule, make sure that users are aware of the schedule. There's an elusive balance to be struck between ease of use and the security and integrity of the equipment.
If you can, have both color and b&w printing available from the scanning computer. If the color printer is not directly cabled to the scanning computer, try to make sure that there's enough bandwidth available so that large print files reach the printer promptly (transmission is rather slow here for very large files, and we've had people who assumed that printing had failed when it simply was taking an unexpectedly long time).
USER HELP
If your scanner is "public", I assume that not everyone who wants to use it will have prior training or experience. To minimize the time your staff will have to spend hand-holding inexperienced users:
Once your hardware and software is installed, someone should go through the scanning and saving/sending/printing processes, making notes about every detail. With notes in hand, write up a step-by-step guide "for the complete idiot", i.e. making no assumptions that people are familiar with the hardware/software or have any real understanding of what they are doing. Most of your users will be more sophisticated than that, but there *will* be some who needs help with every step. Post the instructions prominently near the scanner, and have additional hand-out copies available (if you have only one set of instructions, someone *will* walk off with it). Be prepared to revise the instructions every time there's a change of hardware, software, or policy.
If you can, designate one person as the maintainer of the scanning system, and channel all user comments to that person. It will help with identifying problems, revising instructions, etc.
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We installed a public scanner about a year ago. The scanner is hooked to a single PC workstation that is configured slightly differently than the norm for our networked library workstations. Most of our networked public workstations are fairly "locked down" for security reasons. The somewhat greater control allowed on this PC means we've had several security problems on it. Students mess up the configuration, install their own programs, collect viruses, etc. Our tech people are trying to come up with a way to control this better.
Our scanner is an EPSON GP 10000+. Students open Photoshop, use Epson Twain to import scans, and save either to a ZIP disk or burn a CD using Easy CD Creator. Access to our network is made available so students can email images if they're small enough or save them to their personal webspace.
There is no printer attached to this PC/workstation unit. The unit does not have a flash drive either (although it probably should...).
We do not charge for scans (we don't have a way to do that...).
Response has been good. From a public service standpoint we find we need to deal with the two extremes--students don't have a clue how to scan and/or handle images and need lots of help. The opposite are those who know how to scan on a personal set-up but don't pay attention to the fact that a library station has constraints. Despite instructions, they do things their own way and get into trouble. E.g, we've created a "scanned documents" folder where they are instructed to save scans temporarily. There are *big* instructions on where to save their scans--that they ignore. They put their files elsewhere and then, because access to portions of the C Drive are concealed, they can't retrieve the scans again.
Generally, the only real problems we have are with students who try to use the workstation for other purposes than scanning.
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I have 2 scanners in our arch branch lib. One is a flat scanner, other is large format--36 in. We are working on networking both/either so students can save to their own space on the college network--something I highly recommend. Right now they have to save to the desk top and then save to disc, isb, whatever. Our desktop on both tend to get pretty cluttered until we can delete saved files. Software is pretty complete--precision scan pro which came with the flat scanner. WIDEimage with large format scanner. So far software available is satisfactory. We do not charge for use. No printing*printers available in the college lab facilities.
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Donald R. Juedes
Librarian for Art History, Classics, and Philosophy
Research Services & Collections
Milton S. Eisenhower Library of the Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218-2683
410/516-0605
410/516-8399 (FAX)
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www.marylandartsource.org
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