I am not a librarian in the strictest sense of the word. I don't work with books, I don't catalogue (except at home) and I don't help library patrons.
However, I do work at a (national) library in the field of digital preservation. Does anybody else, from anywhere on any level work in this field also? Just interested....

Hi, ive just started as an 'imaging technician' working with the Kirtas book scanner.

>2

We have a Kirtas machine, as well. Let me know what you think of it, we've had some "interesting" experiences. :)

I am in charge of a digital asset management system where I work (not a library). It is in part for preservation and in part to make things more sharable.

Cool to hear that there are more people on here working on the digital side of things. My work is more the preservation of the results of digitalization (preserving digital object as opposed to digitalization for preservation)... It is a small field, but important, interesting and a lot of fun.

Hi Katya0133
yes, the old chinese curse "may you live in interesting times". The first week was one long headache, but things have settled down since then. THat's not to say that there isnt a steady stream of problems. I seem personally to be beset with the software program continually freezing up. Its very annoying as then you have to shut it down and go through the hassle of setting everything up again. Plus it seems to handle thesis' with ease whilst having serious qualms about books in general. It really should be called the Kirtas thesis-scanner

"I seem personally to be beset with the software program continually freezing up."

Yep. Whenever I'm training someone new to use the software, I have to tell them all of the error messages they can ignore. Are you having trouble with the scanning software or the editing software or both?

"Plus it seems to handle thesis' with ease whilst having serious qualms about books in general. It really should be called the Kirtas thesis-scanner."

Nicely put. Of maybe 500 non-thesis books I've scanned on it, I've had maybe one or two that actually worked with the automatic scanning arm. The book cradle set-up still makes the scanner worth it, in my opinion, but I very rarely use the automatic page turner. (We do do a lot of thesis scanning, but we scan 95%+ of them unbound on a sheetfed scanner, so we don't need the Kirtas for it.)

Fun, fun. :)

- Katya

Katya0133,
We'd love to be able to help you with any issues you are experiencing with your Kirtas APT 2400. Please contact me at twhiting@kirtas.com.

Todd Whiting
Kirtas Technologies

Thanks Todd,

It's actually our IT person who troubleshoots hardware and software issues, and they're in touch with your staff quite often.

- Katya

When I'm at school, I work with people who run a workshop on digital preservation for people in management positions who are interested in implementing digital preservation programs at their institutions. It turns out it's no longer really related to what I want to do when I graduate, but the people are great, I learn a lot of interesting things, and it pays the rent. ;)