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Are you seeking the quintessential scanner for your educational book collection? Look no further. This article will highlight how to choose the best book scanning service in the maze of book scanners.

Talking of digitization, preserving books by scanning them is a big part of digitization. From books of historical importance to modern textbooks, every single one contains some unique content. And that is why finding a way to save them is important.

So, the best book scanning services just bring the right solution to the table. Whether it is a rare book or a new edition, scanning books is a fine choice to make. It stores books digitally. Also, it gives better features like ease of access, availability, and storage and can be reprinted if needed.

What is Book scanning?

Book scanning refers to the process of converting physical books, magazines, and other records into digital media using an image scanner. It is also known as digitizing books or book digitization.

Why Should You Digitize Your Books?

By digitizing or scanning your books, you can reach a whole new audience, primarily the millennial generation, who access all content and information on their mobile devices, tablets, and laptops. However, there are several advantages to scanning books on a large scale.

• By digitizing books, you can eliminate the need for more space and reduce rent and offsite storage fees.
• Digitization is a great way to protect books from damage, loss, and theft.
• Book scanning can bring damaged books to life and make them viewable once again.
• Digitized books can be accessed online or downloaded for offline use.
• Also, you can email or share digitized books on the cloud or other online platforms, anywhere and anytime.
• Book scanning can reduce the cost of reprinting, including sub-costs like equipment management, paper record maintenance, and space costs. Thus, it helps to achieve cost efficiency.
• Digitization of books removes the need to print multiple copies. Thus, it helps to save paper and increases your company’s eco-friendly quotient.

Important Tips to Find the Best Book Scanning Service

Book scanning is very different compared to scanning a standard document or basic records scanning. The quality specialized book scanning service should be identical for all types of books, from small to large, thin to thick books.

First of all, they are using different equipment. While a document scanning provider uses mainly automatic document scanners, book scanning service providers use specialized book scanners.

Second of all, book scanning providers are focused on the quality of the final product and are less interested in productivity. 

Third of all, the process is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. The more experienced operators you have, the better the results. In the quest of finding the best book scanning service, we should follow some important points.

1. The choice of book-scanning equipment should be right.

Any good book scanning service provider should have a combination of equipment:

A planetary book scanner – This is mandatory if you are doing book scanning. It allows you to scan face up, only flipping the pages through the process. It is a good choice when you have to scan fragile material as only the pages are moving. The book remains still.

An automatic book scanner – Large batch of books that need scanning. Pay attention that you avoid scanning fragile material. An automatic book scanner has a lot of moving parts, so it’s better suited to standard books.

A low-resolution book scanner – This is usually a DSLR-based book scanner. It allows you to move quickly through pages of bound documents that don’t require high scanning quality. It’s built more for speed and less for quality.

An ADF Scanner – You will get books that can have their spine removed. It is much faster to scan them on ADF scanners than using your standard book scanning equipment.

2. A good book-scanning service must deliver optimal quality

A lot of books have special designs and characters, making it almost impossible to deliver good quality when scanned on a copier machine.

First of all, a book has to produce the best-looking image. This is mandatory, and it is the first step in the digitization process.

Second of all, that image must be enhanced and improved in such a way, that it delivers a very high level of OCR. By this, we mean that for a standard book, it should be close to 99% accuracy.

The third aspect of quality is color accuracy. All equipment must have good color calibration. 

3. Highly skilled workforce and workflow solutions are mandatory.

The better the human resources involved, the better the final product. For book scanning, this is always the case. If the operator is experienced, he knows what he should deliver to the person doing the image processing. He knows what OCR needs for very good results. With experience comes knowledge. At the same time, the workflow is very important. The better it is, the lower the risk of missed pages, crooked scans, or even damage happening to the original material. The combination of experienced operators, good workflow tools, and specialized software provides the best book scanning service.

FAQs

1. What is the best method to scan a book?

A . We can say that the best way to scan a book is to do it using a specialized book scanner. This way the book is digitized at high resolution without destroying it in the process. The digital book created will be of a very high quality and can also be used for archival purposes.

2. What are the best settings for scanning books?

A. Be sure the DPI (dots per inch) is set between 300 and 400. Documents scanned at a low resolution will not be recognized by conversion software. Scanning documents at 600 dpi might be necessary for certain STEM content or other highly formatted documents.

3. How does Google scan books?

A. Google uses a process called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan books and make them searchable. The process begins by physically scanning the book using a specialized book scanner. The scanner takes high-resolution images of each page and converts them into digital files providing the best book scanning service.

4. How to scan a book without damaging it?

A.1. Prepare the book before the scan. Remove any inserts, wipe the dust away, and clean any dirt.

2. Start the actual scanning process.

3. Make sure you are not overstretching the binding during the scanning process.

4. Finish the scanning and prepare the book for storage.

Final thoughts

When implemented correctly, scanning books can help organizations and publishers achieve cost-efficiencies, copyright protection, high-quality output, and higher returns on investment.  Professional book digitizing service providers use trained technicians to ensure the best book scanning service at each stage of the conversion process including preparing files, data entry, image output, and quality control. OCR technology is then used to index records for each converted digital image. Also, professional digitization services ensure that your books are converted to eBooks quickly, accurately, and securely.