

Ask HN: Digitizing Books That Aren't Available Electronically - RexRollman

I am the new owner of an ereader, and while there are lots of books to buy, some of my favorites are still not available electronically. Because of this, I am considering taking some of my old paperbacks and converting them myself, using a scanner and OCR.<p>Considering the fact that I would be doing this for myself, and will never share them with anyone else, does anyone see anything unethical in doing this?
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noonespecial
I do it all the time. I take the poor book to work, slice it's spine off with
the hydraulic cutter and then feed it through my Fujitsu Scansnap. The whole
process take about 15 minutes for a reasonable sized book. The software that
came with the scanner makes it into a searchable PDF automatically. It's a bit
..ahh.. destructive for some people's taste but I figure by sacrificing the
paper copy, I can keep the electronic one with me for a lot longer.

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jaz
How accurate is the OCR?

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RexRollman
That's what I was wondering. I would imagine that it could be pretty tough,
especially if you are OCRing a fantasy or SciFi book.

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ewams
Scansnap uses abbyy software and it is very accurate, regardless of the topic
of your item because it analyzes the letters not the words.

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RexRollman
Thanks!

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sitkack
You are absolved of your sins my son. Digitize away. If we don't do it, the
books will rot and be lost for ever. It is your life and your brain AND your
books. So feed your brain, don't ask for permission.

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RexRollman
Thanks!

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lorax
If you own the books and you aren't planning on sharing them then you are just
format-shifting which is perfectly ok.

