Hilltopics E-Zine - Barton County Community College

Hilltopics E-Zine
Barton County Community College
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Recording History – Mary Hester, Barton’s Director of Learning Resources, uses the new publications scanner recently purchased by the Barton County Community College Library through donations. The machine, using metadata technology, can digitally scan old and fragile books allowing access to the information for years to come. Donors for the scanner and accessories purchase are Dr. Mary Cohen, Leawood, Rob and Trisha Dove, Great Bend, and the Clinton Dressler estate.

For more information, contact: Darnell Holopirek, 620-792-9367, holopirekd@bartonccc.edu.

June 21, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Story by Trista Pruett, Michael Dawes

Barton Library Receives Publications Scanner To Digitize Books

Barton County Community College’s Library has received a publications scanner that digitizes books. The scanner and accessories used to produce the digitized works was donated through funding by three sources: Dr. Mary Cohen, Leawood, Rob and Trisha Dove, Great Bend, and the estate of Quentin Dressler. Also purchased to go along with the scanner was a computer with a wireless mouse and keyboard, in addition to foot controls that can start the scan if both hands are in use. Total cost of the system is $17,395.

Related to the scanner donation, Cohen and her husband, Bart, also recently donated the new Cohen Center for Kansas History and their extensive collection of more than 700 books that will eventually line bookshelves in the center.

Barton Director of Learning Resources Mary Hester researched to find the appropriate publications scanner for the library and selected the Minolta PS7000 Digital Imaging System, especially designed to scan large-size books, artwork, ledgers, and other bound materials. Its face-up scanning system eliminates the need to turn volumes over in the face-down position, so materials require less handling and fragile bindings are protected.

“The scanner automatically adjusts for the curvature of the page,” said Hester. “Usually when you lay things on a regular scanner, you’ve got the middle, and the outsides are skewed. Well, this scanner automatically adjusts for that.”

The scanner includes a book rest for books with fragile spines, special gloves and a strap made of a soft material to hold fragile books in place. The machine scans open books without pressing down on them, making it ideal for scanning books that are rare or deteriorating, explained Hester.

“The professional groups I belong to are nationwide and I just put out requests (for information),” said Hester. “As far as I know, there are only two others of this machine in Kansas libraries at this point and they’re both at K-State.”

The publications scanner will provide PDF or HTML scans of the books. Hester said her staff will immediately be able to scan books dated before 1923, when copyrights were not available. The
library will seek permission to scan copyrighted books in the collection, she said. Other books in Barton’s library will eventually be accessible through the Internet as well, after scanning the Cohen collection.

“Our priority is the materials in the Cohen collection,” said Hester. “There are some books in that collection, which are not easily findable. We’ll get them out on the Internet, and then when someone uses that, they’ll be using it through Barton’s Web site.”

The scanner utilizes metadata technology, said Hester. The scanner attaches metadata to the files and that allows search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, to find pages in a search.

“If somebody sits down to Google and searches for this book, that metadata will tell Google, here’s a copy of the book that can be used,” said Hester.

There is a learning curve to understanding how to use the newly purchased technology, however. Hester explained that the hardware and software have several menus to learn before her staff can become efficient at performing the scans.

“The manual for the software and the scanner are my bedtime reading,” said Hester. “Scanning is going to be very labor intensive. Once we know how to use it, other people (on staff) will be doing most of the actual scanning.”

Once the Cohen collection is scanned, Hester would like to add to the library’s digital collection regarding Kansas history.

“The Cohen Center’s going to be our main focus, we also hope to do maybe some collaborative things with the historical society on some things that they have that are fragile that would add to our collection if we had a digitized version,” said Hester.

In the years ahead, Hester would even like to progress to see the library be able to scan any piece of history as well.

“If you had your great-great-grandfather’s diary that he wrote when he came to Kansas that’s falling apart, eventually, we hope to be able to say we’ll scan it,” said Hester. “You’re ahead because you now have it in digital form; we’re ahead because we now have that information because we would keep a copy of the scan, too. That’s years down the road.”

With the new scanner, Hester hopes to preserve as much history as she can for future generations.

“We’re getting to the stage where a lot of those things that were written in the early Barton County days and even a little bit later, the paper is starting to deteriorate. And that knowledge is going to be lost if something’s not done about it.”