This year marks the retirement of ‘Bookeye 5’, one of the original overhead book scanners used for large scale digitising projects in the Library’s Scanning Studio.
Since 2007, Bookeye 5 has scanned over 600,000 pages from books, pamphlets, sheet music, journals, manuscripts, street directories, auction plans and theatre programmes.
A diligent team of Digital Production Officers operates the studio equipment (which includes another two newer model Bookeye scanners and two Zeutschel scanners).
Tom, Melanie and Natalie are part of the Scanning Studio team
The scanning process using Bookeye 5 involves carefully positioning material on the scanner bed so that each opening is as flat as possible, then lowering a glass plate to hold the item in place for scanning. The images are then processed, which involves splitting, cropping and straightening each page to prepare it for online viewing.
One of the last items to be scanned on Bookeye 5 is this souvenir programme ‘Australia’s help to Belgium’ featuring a song recital by Antonia Dolores held at Melbourne Town Hall, 19th September, 1914.
Antonia Dolores souvenir, ‘Australia’s help to Belgium’, published by D. R. Davies Co., Print, 1914.
Explore some of the popular digitised collections that have passed through the Library’s scanning studio.
