Book Scanning Volunteer

We are very lucky to own an overhead A2 book scanner. This enables you to put a book face up like you’re reading it, and simply flip the page and press a button to get a scan. You then continue to turn pages and press the button or foot pedal until the book is completed. The program also has options to split the pages down the middle, add page numbers to the file name and crop the images which we would gradually introduce during the training.

Once the scans are completed, we transfer them to an online archive and we will be adding copies to our online digital collections tool (where copyright permits).

Skills

• Accuracy: it is important not to skip a page by accident or if you’re doing scans with matching page numbers you also need to match them together
• Careful handling: some of the books and documents are fragile and you need to turn the pages gently and with care and respect
• Experience of using computers in general would be helpful

It can be awkward to do the scanning sat down all of the time; some of the larger plans you would need to stand up to position them under the glass however we could provide smaller items for someone to work fully seated. The height of the scanner table is unfortunately not adjustable.