[Digitalarchivists] Noisebridge DIY Book Scanner

Tue Jun 18 05:38:47 UTC 2013

Hey everyone,

That's great news about the PC, Jude! I would be up for travelling to
Richmond to meet and help set things up, on whatever date works for
everyone else.

John

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 10:20 AM, newmy51 at gmail.com <newmy51 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Jude, Daniel & Noisebridge DA-List,
>
> I'm still out of state, but finally at a computer fit for writing emails
> which my limited patience for dinky touchscreens will not permit.
>
> Those software tweaks sound like an excellent fit for our purposes, and
> perhaps kit scanners worldwide, as internet connectivity is not necessarily
> a guarantee in all scanning circumstances.  It's also nice to know that one
> or more components of the archive.org hardware/software suite are
> retoolable at all.  Can that be taken to mean that these things are
> entirely open source?  If so, is there publicly available documentation
> detailing this equipment and the software behind it?  One of the end goals
> of Noisebridge's book scanning endeavors is, loosely put, to develop
> hardware, software and operation standards to which all other hackerspaces
> and their scanners can adhere.  From conversations so far with both Daniel
> and IA people, that appears to be a shared goal.
>
> I can't personally make a trip to Richmond until at least a few days after
> I get back (20th), as I'll be moving my life out of one San Francisco
> hobble and into another.  We do have several folks in our ranks who have
> expressed a willingness to travel, whether to the Archive, Ace Monster
> Toys, etc.  I'll leave it to them to speak up if that's a trip one or more
> are willing/able to make.  Purely out of self interest, I propose that
> meeting take place closer to the end of this month or the beginning of
> next, so as to remain as personally involved as possible.
>
> We haven't settled on a Powershot model as of yet.  That search was
> ongoing until news came of being loaned Canon DSLRs from the Books dept. at
> IA. I assume our "beta testing" will benefit from the use of more than one
> camera model.  Seems like we ought to seek out Powershots just to have on
> hand.  Do you, Jude, or other Books people have any insights into the
> merits of one model or another?  I've done my own exploring/conversating in
> this DIYBookScanner thread<http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2569>but there does not seem to be a consensus on a single gold standard so far.
>
> With all the developments as of late, we (the Noisebridge Digital
> Archivists group) are definitely due for another general meeting.  That
> will likely be the first order of business upon my return to SF, post-move.
>  I'll send out another dispatch once the date's been set.  I extend to you,
> Jude, the same invitation I have to Daniel, which is to Skype into that
> meeting and/or simply subscribe to the DA mailing list<https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Digital_Archivists> if
> you'd like to stay extra-current with our goings on.
>
> With great anticipation,
>
> -Danny N.
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 11:56 PM, Jude Coelho <judec at archive.org> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Danny,
>>
>> I wanted to give you an update on where things stand. I ordered a PC (the
>> same model we use on our scribes) and it should be here before the end of
>> the week. I plan to put our software on there and then set a few switches
>> in the software that are designed to allow our scribes to function in the
>> event of a network outage. This will allow the software to work without a
>> connection to archive.org's database. I don't believe that should take
>> more than a day, so I think, if it's good for you, we can probably meet up
>> some time later next week or early the following week and so I can give you
>> the PC, the cameras, and some training in using our software. I'm also
>> excited to check out the scanner.
>>
>> After that, I think you're definitely going to want to make some
>> modifications to the software, and I'd be glad to help or advise with that
>> in any way I can. We can discuss it in more detail, but to briefly
>> summarize our process, our software is designed to produce a tarball of
>> images along with an xml file containing metadata about cropping,
>> deskewing, and rotation of the images (and some structural metadata about
>> page numbers and page types optionally captured during image capture). This
>> metadata is used on our servers, once a book is uploaded, to perform those
>> actions on the raw images, producing the final formats that you see on
>> archive.org. While you're of course welcome to upload anything you scan
>> to archive.org, wait for it to process, and then download it, I assume
>> you'd also like to be able to produce finished scans independent of our
>> servers (and we would like to see that happen as well).
>>
>> Would you be able to meet at our Physical Archive in Richmond? That's
>> where the cameras are, and also where my colleague Sean is based. He will
>> have some ideas for mounting the cameras.
>>
>> I'm also very interested in seeing how the software works with the Canon
>> Powershots you guys have. Do you have the model number of those, by the
>> way? I would like to look at the specs online.
>>
>> I'll email you again as soon as the PC arrives so we can set a date. Are
>> you still out of town? If so, is there someone else I should email about
>> this?
>>
>> Thanks, and I look forward to working together.
>>
>> -Jude
>>
>> Jude Coelho
>> Process Manager
>> Internet Archive
>>
>> On 5/28/13 10:55 AM, Jude Coelho wrote:
>>
>> Hi Danny,
>>
>> After you left on Friday, I heard back on an email I had sent to Daniel
>> Reetz a week earlier, and he suggested we contact Noisebridge and look into
>> working together since you had one of the kits. Synchronicity!
>>
>> Let me see what Robert has to say about the time frame and I'll get back
>> to you asap. His email is CCed here btw.
>>
>> Jude Coelho
>> Process Manager
>> Internet Archive
>>
>> On 5/24/13 6:17 PM, newmy51 at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> Hi Jude,
>>
>>  I write you now from Noisebridge, just beneath the shelf currently home
>> to the mostly-assembled Reetz kit scanner.  An update has gone out to the
>> Digital Archivists mailing list (
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Digital_Archivists) with a recap of our
>> attendance today at IA and the accompanying discussions with yourself,
>> Robert and Jason Scott.  Though I will almost certainly be out of town for
>> the occasion, we'd like to put together a time when the kit can be brought
>> to IA and outfitted with the necessary equipment and/or software to begin
>> the "beta testing" we discussed this afternoon.  The only way I could
>> personally participate in that meeting would be if it took place this
>> coming Tuesday, which I realize may be too short of notice.  Either way,
>> get back to me when you can with what works for you and we'll plan
>> accordingly.  And of course, thank you, again, for your advice, generosity,
>> and interest in our project and its progress.  We look forward to working
>> with you.
>>
>>  Very Best.
>>
>>  -Danny N.
>>
>>  PS:  Please forward this onto Robert as well (I don't have his email
>> address).
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Digitalarchivists mailing list
> Digitalarchivists at lists.noisebridge.net
> http://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/digitalarchivists
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.noisebridge.net/pipermail/digitalarchivists/attachments/20130617/849adbee/attachment-0001.html>