You can't stop the signal.

Greetings Lainons, There are many books the great Lain wishes could be in our digital libraries, and a near equal number of projects [0] aiming to bring them so. None are directly organized for the benefit of Lainchan, however. Therefore, I offer a proposition for this fine board's consideration: We crowd-source the funds for an automatic linear bookscanner [1] [2], which I will build and operate, converting books selected by the community into digital form. I also have some fun ideas about how to distribute the physical books post-scan, as a kind of Kickstarter-esque rewards system. What say you folks? It's not quite a warehouse in Kasas City, but a potentially mutually beneficial arrangement nonetheless. E-mail the throwaway account provided to indicate your interest, or reply in this thread; once that reaches a critical threshold, we can also discuss how to actually co-ordinate financial resources for the greater good of freeing text from the page. [0] wwww.diybookscanner.org [1] http://linearbookscanner.org/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuoOaL11bw

Do you mean crowd-funding? Crowd-sourcing is when the "crowd" works for you.

>>2417 "crowd-source the funds" => crowd-funding Somewhat of a circumlocution, admittedly.

I can't think of any situation where a book I wanted hasn't been scanned already. What would be the purpose of this, then?

>>2416 Hey, I'd be especially willing to help. I have experience in printing, cutting, and binding books or paper products. I'll send you an email and try to inform some of my friends who might find interest in this project. I'm mostly passionate about the preservation and distribution of both tangible and digital information.

>>2419 Old books, mate. There are a lot of early XX century books that are out of print. Even though one could call them old сrap, its still worth preserving.

>>2421 That makes sense, but I imagine it to be hard to get ahold of them.

The DIY book scanner seems kinda expensive to order or make from scratch. Personally, I don't like giving money to people I don't know personally. I think it might be more productive if everyone interested tried starting a local book scanning group, and the few that succeed could recoup the costs of the scanner by renting it out cheaply for personal use, which should be good for everyone because that will likely be used for piracy as well.

>>2428 Here is the plan I suggest interested lainons follow. 1. Ask all the people you know in your area, some people you don't know (via craigslist, or some local publication, or something) if they'd like to start a book scanning club. State up front that the club-to-be aspires to buy and create a DIY Book Scanner. http://store.diybookscanner.org/collections/frontpage/products/pre-order-archivist-book-scanner 2. People are more likely to take you seriously if you take some initiative yourself, so until a proper group can be organized, build this cardbox box book scanner, take donations or offer a paid service, and get to work! http://www.instructables.com/id/Bargain-Price-Book-Scanner-From-A-Cardboard-Box/?ALLSTEPS 3. Once you have a proper group, I suggest scanning public domain books for free, and charging for books that aren't public domain. Don't publish the books that aren't public domain, or you'll be shut down real quick! 4. Once the DIY Book Scanner is bought and built, scan donated public domain books with it, and share them on a project website and something. You may also scan copyrighted material, but be sure that there's no connected between the pirated material and your book scanning club. Of course, you should also rent it out to compensate for the purchase, which could be put in the pockets of club members, or you could use it to buy more rare books and scan those. What do you think? Does this sound like a good plan of action?

You can scan books perfectly well using a normal scanner if you're willing to remove the binding. If you're willing to spend the time and learn how to remove (and perhaps even replace) them properly you could do this a hell of a lot cheaper.

>>2431 >removing the binding No.

>>2432 You're sacrificing a single physical copy for potentially infinite digital ones. Damning the information held within the book to be forgotten just because you don't want to put a few bruises on your analogue edition is plain selfish. You can always have it professionally rebound afterwards.

>>2433 Why destroy the book, when you could just use pic related? Physical books are sacred, and we may have to rely on them when SHTF. In addition, unless the book in question is in large circulation, you may preven someone else from creating an ebook of said book, that is superior to yours. That, and it'd be nice to sell it for a good price once I'm done with it. That being said, I do know that book stores strip paperbacks of their covers, and then throw them in the trash, as demanded by their publishers. Not sure if book is still together once it reaches the trash or not, but I believe that's an possibility worth exploring.

>>2438 You aren't willing to sacrifice your books or even just take the time to learn to rebind them and yet you want us to crowdfund a machine for you so that you can later sell it? This isn't going to work.

>>2441 Some people can unbind their books, other can use a similar contraption to the previous post if they don't want to unbind. What's the problem?