High-volume historical book scanning at Crossroads Document Services is a multi-step process, requiring a scanning crew and a quality control team as well as indexers to rename the digital files before delivery.
While the specialized equipment necessary to scan bound books is “really cool”—especially our Bookeye 4 V1A-C35 that scans bound books up to 14-inches thick—the unsung heroes of our process are the QC techs. These hard-working individuals review every scanned image, comparing the actual book page to the scan to verify accurate capture and legibility.
In addition, QC techs straighten and crop the digital pages as needed to make the finished product look as much like the original document as possible. It is an exacting, time-consuming, and often challenging job that requires constant focus and attention to detail. While this type of work does not suit everyone, it’s a great fit for members of the CDS quality team. They take pride in producing digital images that preserve history and help make it accessible through the Indianapolis Public Library’s Digital Indy Project.
Check out their work at http://digitalindy.org and use the search term Crossroads Document Services to find some of the collections CDS has completed.
