Thing: Rare book digitizer

>> How McGill is making its most rarefied tomes machine-readable by PHILIP PREVILLE

Rare books create a conundrum for librarians: the library's first mission, the sharing of knowledge, conflicts with the need for preservation. Old books develop crusty spines and brittle yellowed pages, which means they can't leave the library, white gloves may be necessary for handling, and access may even be limited to students with special permission.

McGill University, however, has found a way to increase access to its rare books--thanks to a lot of grant money and one badass digital camera.

1. Lights: Photocopying or scanning rare books is forbidden, because the intense heat and light accelerate deterioration. This setup solves that problem: beneath this hood, aimed down at the table, are two 250-watt halogen bulbs (the same kind used in slide projectors). Each with its own cooling fan. Together they generate enough light to take a digital photo without exposing the book to intense heat.

2. Camera: This digital camera cost over $18,000; the stand on which it is mounted cost another $8,000. The camera can increase its field of vision by moving up and down on its vertical stand, and can take photos at resolutions of up to 2,000 dpi (dots per inch).

3. Action: Employees spend their days placing an endless succession of individual pages and maps on this surface, focusing the camera, and taking pictures. With over 250,000 rare books, McGill must decide which ones get photographed first. Says chief curator Irena Murray: "It depends on the quality and uniqueness of the items. If someone has a better Rousseau collection than we do, then what's the point?"

4. Post-production: The camera sends the images into a computer network, where they are retouched, catalogued, and subjected to the wonders of technology. Check out the Canadian County Atlas Project (http://imago.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas) to see just what can be done: maps, title deeds and photographs all correlated in a single database, allowing anyone from Ontario to look up their original ancestors on-line.

Final factoid: The irony in all this, of course, is that the books will go on to outlive the digital images. A typical CD-ROM will degrade within 10 to 40 years, while the books, some already hundreds of years old, will only last for hundreds more. :