Books In Alaska

[teamcoltra]

Hello guys,
I didn't know where to post this so I thought I would do so here. I am a substitute teacher, and my mother is a full time teacher up in a little bush village up here in Alaska. One problem we run into is that when students barrow books, sometimes they lose them, or damage them, and its not easy to have books shipped out here. It would be great to be able to keep digital copies of the books so we can at least have them on our computer if something ever happens to them. That being said our budget wont really allow for us to buy a book scanner.

I hope this doesn't come across as some newbie, hoping to score a free scanner. I wouldn't even ask, except that the local electronics store is 400 miles away, and even the most simple of parts are expensive, and the entire cost of the scanner would be coming out of our pockets. So we are hoping to get as many donated parts as possible.

Here is my town http://travismccrea.com/images/chevak

The parts don't have to be new, but if someone has some stuff that they are no longer using (perhaps you built a new and improved model, or you have bought new cameras), it would be awesome if instead of taking it to Good Will or something, that you send it up here. Hopefully most of the stuff can be shipped in flat rate boxes, however, if you have a part that you want to donate, but want shipping compensation, shoot me a message.

Questions can go to teamcoltra@gmail.com (also if you plan on shipping something, and don't want your name listed here, then send me a message so I can at least put what part is being shipped so no one else sends a second).

Our Address is:
Project Bush Book Scan
ICO Travis McCrea
PO 328
Chevak, AK 99563

After we get the scanner built, we will make sure and take pictures of it, and also of our kids (with permission) learning the technology.

[rob]

If you still have trouble getting parts after this plea, you might consider starting a crowdfunded project on Kickstarter. There are projects on there costing as little as $50 (little knitted blankets for cats at the shelter!) and as much as $125,000 (a book-to-movie project). Here's a nice story about one project.

[teamcoltra]

Yeah, I was thinking about going that route, but we figured:
We can ask for money from people, and more than likely we would get the funding for it. However, we would still have the problem of trying to order stuff and have it shipped to us... and knowing which parts to get... and general parts like the arms and legs of the scanner are a little more complicated to buy online rather than going to a hardware store and just picking them up.

or

We could ask the awesome people here at DIYBookScanner, and see if anyone has any old parts, and could ship them our way.

Although I haven't got any emails yet, I am hoping guys. It would be nice to have a book scanner for the school. Though if push-comes-to-shove we might go the direction of kickstarter. Which is a great program, and it helps makerspaces get started up and lots of other cool community projects.


Thanks guys.

[daniel_reetz]

One request is fine (though generally we discourage people asking for free book scanners, no matter how worthy the project). Rob's suggestion is a good one. I'm sure you could get someone, somewhere to build a scanner if you had a little money. I'm glad to hear about your project and hope there's some way we can help out beyond just forking over a scanner.


Because this is starting to happen more and more often (most often to me, privately), as a note to everyone on general policy, if we get a lot of book scanner begging or spammy, repeated requests, we'll ban the offending parties.

[univurshul]

Our Address is:
Project Bush Book Scan
ICO Travis McCrea
PO 328
Chevak, AK 99563

After we get the scanner built, we will make sure and take pictures of it, and also of our kids (with permission) learning the technology.

Good lord, you guys are way up there.

I have a few ideas for you:

1: Study. Read. Study. This site has a ton of hardware examples, including very simple, yet effective systems. One of our most knowledgeable archivists who contributes to DIY made a scanner from cardboard and black paper: http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... ?f=1&t=275. If I were you, I'd spearhead a grassroots project that starts with the basics and evolves the technology to a point that meets the demand of the media you plan on scanning....I suppose this is what you're doing, but your aim might be set on a New Standard, not sure, your post is vague as far as the system you want constructed.

2: How many books in your village? How many that are rare? Are we talking like books/journals passed down from generation to generation amongst the native Alaskans/Inuit peoples, etc? Or are they books like mass-published Harper Collins textbooks, etc.?

I ask this because you meet certain logistical criteria that would make better sense to go digital for your classrooms in a way that avoids the need to even book scan: get the students and faculty converted to tablets, ereading devices, and laptops.

A working book scanner is a single component to the digital conversion. Try and obtain electronic versions of most of your books online and simulate a digital transition with 1 class as an experiment. If you can't do this, what good are ebooks to your classrooms if they can't be accessed by the students effectively?

Scan the rare stuff after you've mastered archiving. You won't master archiving by getting a momentary switch in the mail the month of November and maybe a platen hinge in January. If you plan on reproducing quality ebooks and making it a worthwhile effort, you will need to pony up the materials cost, drive the 400 miles and buy the order list that's required to assemble a New Standard.

It's obvious you have internet, so I say avoid the side-track of building an elaborate book scanner--for now, that is. You may qualify for programs and initiatives that provide electronic learning materials to institutions. I can't tell you how many free abundant, excellent online learning resources I've taken advantage of.

I work in hardware extensively with DIY-level books scanning. It is easy to ask and receive parts in theory, but assembling and "knowing" the machine is an entirely separate thing. That is why you need to start with cardboard and a tripod if you are limited on resources to build a unit. Start testing, become well-versed. Only then I believe any hand-me-down parts that may get sent your way won't go to waste. A miss-cut or incorrect drill mark could spell weeks worth of delays, trashed parts, etc.

My moto is build 1 and then build 1 more. The 2nd scanner will naturally be a better instrument for transcribing books than the 1st. Sell the 1st to a neighboring school or to a private user; have the 2nd paid for by the 1st.

3-This could be a bigger concept than just your village. Have you ever pitched the idea of a book scanner to other towns in the bush? I say you guys/gals get together and have a fundraiser for a central archival machine. Most won't see the immediate need, but I suppose it depends on how well you can network upper AK; sounds like a unique opportunity....I see these ads on television from IBM about "building a smarter planet". --Hey, pitch the idea and get funding, film a commercial, and boom!

4-My guess is that there's more books than computers in Chevak. Can the average family or the school afford to supply student's with ereading devices? If the closest Radio Shack is 400 miles, how far is the nearest Apple store? My point: the ereaders are going to drain your budget well before the scanner's construction cost. Switches, wiring, etc. is cheap, can be ordered new for pennies. But the electronic devices; the cameras, the iPads, Kindles the computers to process images...you get my drift.

Best of Luck and Success.

[Misty]

The other question I would have is, how are you planning to use the digital copies you keep in case of the loss of the originals? Do you have a reasonable way to make use of them where they'll still be useful? I imagine that portable devices are probably out of the question; if you have a problem with students losing books, losing portable digital devices would be a problem, too. I'm sure that those would be at least as hard to replace as a book is.

[StevePoling]

Yaknow, there are already a whole freakin' lot of Project Gutenberg titles out there. I figure a body can get a darned good education reading nothing but books that are available for free from Project Gutenberg.

I think others have put their finger on the limiting factor. Portable e-readers are not yet ubiquitous. If every Alaskan had a Kindle, Sony reader, or Nook, s/he could use both Gutenberg titles, and also whatever you could scan. But first, let's get everyone an ereader filled with Gutenberg texts.