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Ask HN: Digitizing Books That Aren't Available Electronically

5 points by RexRollman ↗ HN
I am the new owner of an ereader, and while there are lots of books to buy, some of my favorites are still not available electronically. Because of this, I am considering taking some of my old paperbacks and converting them myself, using a scanner and OCR.

Considering the fact that I would be doing this for myself, and will never share them with anyone else, does anyone see anything unethical in doing this?

10 comments

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noonespecial
I do it all the time. I take the poor book to work, slice it's spine off with the hydraulic cutter and then feed it through my Fujitsu Scansnap. The whole process take about 15 minutes for a reasonable sized book. The software that came with the scanner makes it into a searchable PDF automatically. It's a bit ..ahh.. destructive for some people's taste but I figure by sacrificing the paper copy, I can keep the electronic one with me for a lot longer.
sitkack
keep the sheaf and slather it with rubber cement and a folded strip of 80lb paper. instant new binding on that stack o papers.

I have a mechanical cutter since I don't have access to a die cutters shop, good for you! They can be had for around 120 the last time I looked.

jaz
How accurate is the OCR?
RexRollman
That's what I was wondering. I would imagine that it could be pretty tough, especially if you are OCRing a fantasy or SciFi book.
ewams
Scansnap uses abbyy software and it is very accurate, regardless of the topic of your item because it analyzes the letters not the words.
ig1
Abbey Finereader is generally regarded as the gold standard for ebook OCR
sitkack
You are absolved of your sins my son. Digitize away. If we don't do it, the books will rot and be lost for ever. It is your life and your brain AND your books. So feed your brain, don't ask for permission.
lorax
If you own the books and you aren't planning on sharing them then you are just format-shifting which is perfectly ok.