Okay, this technology is new to me, and it’s evolution, not revolution, but even if I’m late to the game, I am still impressed.
Vivid-Pix has scanning software in libraries and senior centres around the world. The idea is that it should be easy and fast.
The scanning software works with a device known as a ScanSnap SV600. This top-down but at-an-angle scanner is better than my all-in-one printer, which has a scanning function. I can put books under it without squashing them, turn the page, and trigger a new scan.
I have a D&D Beyond account purely to check the rules if I end up in a 5e game during a convention. I can check up on what I need to know on my mobile.
Most of my PDF RPGs have been uploaded to Notion for easy access and, once again, the ability to read them on the fly from my mobile. DriveThruRPG even has a Phone PDF format. Some of my PDF RPGs are even small enough to upload to my Kindle account, and I can use my Kindle Scribe to read them.
However, my four shelves of physical TTRPGs contain rulebooks older than DriveThruRPG, and even if I wasn’t geeky enough to still want online access to them, I should think about digital preservation. In a former job, I was on the outskirts of an important project from The National Galleries of Scotland to do the same with Scotland’s artwork. Everything was scanned in high resolution and made available to view for free from the website (which adjusted its colours to suit the art). For example, you can see Samuel John Peploe’s Landscape at Cassis on a suitably muted page.
I never once thought to recreate the NGS approach with my books, but Vivid-Pix’s Memory Station makes it look easy enough, albeit a one-off expensive investment.
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My concern with the technology is that people could abuse it to make and sell dodgy PDFs, but I’m not a pirate, and professional pirates are probably already well down this track.
It’s a quirky website that focuses on people a decade or two older than me who might have a collection of physical photographs they might want to archive. I conclude, therefore, that the software will have large buttons and be straightforward. I have no problems with that! However, this is a US and Canada deal, and therefore, it is not for me, but it has opened my eyes to the possibility of my own PDF library archive.
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