Is it possible to scan pages from a book without destroying the book?

[mayrabloom 0]

Thanks!

[Adjusting 276]

Lots of companies sell products known as overhead scanners, book scanners, or document cameras. These allow you to place an open book beneath them and take a picture of both pages at once.

[gazumped 9,839]

Unless it's a very expensive (or otherwise precious) book,  it will probably be more cost effective to trash one copy and buy another - much quicker too.  All other methods are more expensive for greater degrees of automation.  The most economic solutions require lots of page turning and sequential snapping,  and quality output requires good light and a steady hand or a stand.  There are plans online to build your own camera stand and book copier.

[Candid 167]

Yes, a flatbed scanner, such as those that come with most multipurpose printers can do this for you. As gazumped pointed out this will take a lot of time so you have to weight the cost of the time against the cost of the book itself. However, besides price you may wish to keep something like a journal intact and not destroy it. 

 

If you do not own such a scanner many libraries have them and will let you scan for free to a USB drive. 

[Analyst444 182]

mayrabloom, would this approach work for you?

• Acquire (buy?) an electronic copy of the book and store it on your desktop computer. Make sure you have an app on your computer that can open the book. A Kindle version is an example.
• Create a new Note in Evernote.
• Add the electronic copy of the book as an attachment to the Note.

If you have Evernote Premium and if you are able to obtain a PDF version of the book, Evernote will search the book when you use the Evernote search function.

 

If you do not have Premium and the book is large, it may cause you to exceed your monthly syncing limit. If that it is the case, then consider placing the Note in an "Unsyncronized" folder.

 

I hope this helps

[jbenson2 2,146]

ScanSnap has an expensive scanner designed for scanning books without resorting to a guillotine slicer.

The software automatically corrects for the curvature of the page.

 

There is a video on this link

http://scanners.fcpa.fujitsu.com/scansnap11/features_sv600.html

[GrumpyMonkey 4,315]

I have found the most inexpensive and effective solution is to build your own version of the Scansnap thing mentioned above by jbenson. Got a smart phone? Got a tripod? Got a hanger? Then you are all set.

http://www.subchaser.org/photographing-documents

 

I've used this method a lot and it does surprisingly well. In my case, I've long relied on a Canon digital camera, but I suspect the iPhone 6 has probably surpassed it by now.

[mayrabloom 0]

Sounds as if the Evernote Scanner can't scan book pages without destroying them, but other methods can work.  Thanks for your thoughtful replies!!

[chirmer 567]

If you do not own such a scanner many libraries have them and will let you scan for free to a USB drive. 

This this this!!! Our office printer at work (a library) can recognize a book and scan the items on either side of a spine as two pages. It's incredibly efficient. Also, depending on the book, I've had luck using the Evernote camera scanner on my iPhone. If it'll lay relatively flat when open, it works very well. If it's a small softcover or hardcover that has an inflexible spine, however, it's much more difficult. Plus, destroying books... it's just so sad. 

[gazumped 9,839]

Librarians defending books - whatever next...