Waaaaay OT, sorry.

[Micah]

Gary Kline wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 10:15:06PM -0800, Vizion wrote:
> 
>>On Monday 28 November 2005 22:05,  the author Gary Kline contributed to the 
>>dialogue on-
>> Waaaaay OT, sorry.: 
>>
>>
>>>	Folks,
>>>
>>>	This is one of my more obscure questions and involves scanning
>>>	not paper but something they used to store books, magazines,
>>>	and newspapers--before the computer age.  It is called a
>>>	microfiche (or fiche).  A friend got a copy of a rare
>>>	out-of-print, not-for-sale book on microfiche.  We're looking
>>>	for some means of scanning this film into a scanner with
>>>	OCR.  So far, he has tried a camera with 8G memory.  No joy,
>>>	the scanner sees garbage.  Anybody out there ever have anything
>>>	like this prob?  The book is from 1913 so it is well in the
>>>	public domain.  I've already written Google; zero response.
>>>
>>>	I want to get this book up on my site, fully HTML it so that
>>>	everybody has the opportunity to ready it ... .
>>>
>>>	thanks for any insights,
>>>
>>>	gary
>>
>>Its a long time since I have handled microfiche but my guess is you will need 
>>to mount your camera onto a  microfiche reader or a microscope. The 
>>resolution of a microfiche image is really high - far higher than the camera 
>>you are using so I think you may need something to enlarge the image for you 
>>to photograph.
>>
>>my two pennorth
>>
>>david
>>
> 
> 
> 	Microscope; that never cross my mind.  I think my pal took stuff
> 	to the  main library one night and tried capturing the data from 
> 	the reader.   Not very successful; I don't know the details.
> 	(We are around 1200 miles apart.)   Any ballpark SWAG what power 
> 	lens might work here?  I only touched m'fiche one time ever, so 
> 	have no idea.  Money is an issue since there are 400+ pages.
> 
> 
> 	gary
> 
> 

Here's several ideas:

My sister has used a microfiche viewer and a digital camera to reproduce 
genealogical records in the past.  Doesn't turn out half bad.  Many 
libraries have microfiche readers.  Some have the ability to print, but 
that may cost you on a per page basis.

The place I used to work for subcontracted to get microfiche scanned for 
our clients.  You should look into how much that costs before ruling it 
out completely.

Lastly, if the book has any historical or literary significance, you 
might try talking to a few of the larger libraries in your area.  You 
/may/ be able to get them to do the scanning for you in exchange for 
allowing them to shelve a copy or two.

Later,
Micah