For the first year of the project, we are targeting to digitize around 100,000 monographs - English language and in public domain.
Books will be checked out for the project up to 3 months. We hope as all the workflow processes become smoother that the actual time will be shorter.
No. The scanning vendor for this project uses a digitization process in which a bound book is placed in a book cradle. Pages are digitized by overhead digital cameras. So, books remain intact. A mechanical arm then turns the pages as the are digitized, and this process is probably more gentle then turning pages with a human hand. We expect all our books to be returned to the shelves in the same condition they were in before scanning.
No. During the first year of the project we are only digitizing books in the public domain, and we are currently focusing on books published prior to 1923.
We expect to start receiving the digitized images in February. The LSDI Access group is in the process of assessing different delivery options. One of the scenarios reviewed involves linking the PDF versions of the books to the Voyager records as they start arriving.
No. Access to the books both from Microsoft and Cornell site will be free of any charges.