Just got a scanner, curious about how you guys do it

[miketheratguy]

Wasn't sure if this was the right section or not since it's not directly related to the site, but it's still a "how do I" subject so I figured I'd give it a try.

 

So anyway I just got a scanner over the weekend. It's nothing industrial or even expensive. It's a basic Canon all-in one scanner / printer / copier from Wal-Mart. I should point out that I probably wouldn't be using it to contribute anything to the site. Not that I'd be against the idea - in fact I think it would be cool to help out - but rather because I'm sure that it doesn't come close to the site's professional-quality standards.

 

I bought it primarily to make backup copies of my photos, drawings and documents but then I started thinking about how fun it would be to make my own ebooks (the resolution limits won't matter as much on a small screen). I have no idea how to cleanly go about doing this though, so I figured that I'd ask you guys. In short, how do you go about de-binding a book that uses glue other than staples, and does the book have to be completely destroyed or is it at all salvageable in the process? Is there a way to get it back together once you're finished? I'd love to hear your advice as I take my first amateur steps towards book preservation.

[kitsunebi]

I use a heat gun on bound magazines.  It allows the pages to be pulled out pretty quickly and easily, but unless you want to keep the loose pages, there's really nothing to be done with them once they've been scanned, so I throw them away.  I suppose you could pay a lot of money and have them professionally rebound, but if you cared that much about a book, why would you de-bind it in the first place?

[miketheratguy]

Interesting. I'd assumed that full destruction of the book was necessary in order to properly scan it, I was just hoping that it wouldn't be.

 

So the pages don't retain any stickiness that would allow them to be packed back together? The glue remains inside the spine of the cover?

[kitsunebi]

If you're unlucky, some glue will still be on the pages, making them a bitch to scan using an ADF scanner.  So hopefully all the glue stays on the spine.  The first and last page (those directly next to the cover) are the most likely to have glue residue.  But within seconds of having the heat taken off, the glue returns to its hardened state - there's no stickiness.

[miketheratguy]

Hmm. So probably no real shot at having the pages shuffled into a nice, neat pile, reheating the glue, and cramming the pack of pages back into the glue with anything resembling grace or neatness.

[kitsunebi]

Ha, no.  Also, the spine usually doesn't look so hot after the debinding process.  This isn't a big deal since I just cut it off anyway, but even if you could put everything back together again it would definitely not be in the same condition it started in. 

[miketheratguy]

Thanks for the info. Again, I think I figured that the book would be a mangled mess once everything was said and done but I was trying to hold out the hope that the pros had a way of doing it that would leave the book in a still-readable state. Bummer!

[Sean697]

Actually Marktrade was looking into a book binding kit, I don't know if if he bought one but apparently such things exist to align and reglue pages.

[kitsunebi]

Most binding kits I've seen are for binding pages to a new cover, not the original one.  I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any success rebinding a softcover book/magazine using the original cover.

[miketheratguy]

I'd be curious about either. I suppose, worst-case scenario, I could always still keep the original book and just hole-punch everything to put it into some kind of binder once I'm done scanning. That way I could continue to keep a physical copy after creating the digital one. Or just buy second copies of whatever I scan, I guess. They're mostly old books that aren't particularly rare.

[kitsunebi]

If you're trying to make ebooks that are text-only, you could just lay them on a flatbed to scan and have an OCR program turn them into a PDF or whatever.  Although if you're talking paperbacks, that'll still probably ruin the spine.

[miketheratguy]

If you're trying to make ebooks that are text-only, you could just lay them on a flatbed to scan and have an OCR program turn them into a PDF or whatever.  Although if you're talking paperbacks, that'll still probably ruin the spine.

 

Hmm, that's worth looking into. Many of the books that I'd be looking to convert would be text only.