As many members of this list know, my project has been computerising
historic boundaries for Britain since 1994. This is a bit
misleading: since 2000, we have been computerising all sorts of
other things, like land-use maps and geographical name authorities,
but NOT boundary lines, with some minor exceptions. A new funding
programme may be giving us the chance to go back to work on
boundaries, but this time we want to create a library of
geo-referenced scans of boundary maps, as well as vector versions of
selected boundary lines. We have in fact accumulated quite a
collection of paper maps, much of it being the map section of ONS's
library when they were at St. Catharine's House (how we acquired it
is a long story, but quite legal).
The problem is that many of the maps are bound into large volumes and
hard to get onto a scanner. We do have access to an A2-size book
scanner, but it is not that relevant, as many of the maps -- for
example, in the reports of the Parliamentary Boundary Commission --
fold out to bigger than A2, and need colour while that scanner is
monochrome. Besides, the sheer weight of the volumes is a problem.
The bindings of the book are of no special historical interest and
often in poor condition, so our preferred solution is to take the
books apart, scan the maps on a conventional flat bed scanner and
then re-bind the books. There is a good case for getting them re-bound anyway.
This sounds sensible until you think about the workflow: re-binding
would normally mean getting a bookbinder to take the books apart and
then immediately re-binding them, but we need scanning to happen in between.
Does anyone know of a binding firm that also does scanning?
Or a scanning firm that would also do the binding?
Has anyone got any experience of a project that worked this way?
With some of the most recent reports, we could probably live with the
idea of destroying the original reports to create the digital
version, but this would be clearly unacceptable with the majority.
Any advice would be very useful.
Humphrey Southall
PS suggestions about possible suppliers of A2 or A1 flatbed -- not
roller -- scanners would also be useful.
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