transfering publications to CD's..?

[tamangel]

Didn't know where to put this question so here goes...

I see all the TM's available here and I wonder how thats done? I have a number of newsletters from a public agency and would like to transfer them to a CD format that would be search-able. Currently when looking for specific terms (names, places, etc..), I have to go through years of monthly publications.. I would like to have each issue, wording and pic's available to retrieve, copy and email to folks.. Any help here other than me having to type out the long way, all wording..? Any commercial places that will scan pages onto a disk that is later search-able? I suppose this too, will be labor-intensive s as I literally have 50 plus years of issues.. Unfortunately, the agency didn't do this nor did the State Library archives..

Mike

*********
No society can prosper where political expediency trumps common sense. "Once [an elected official] begins to weigh each issue in terms of his chances for reelection," President Kennedy wrote in "Profiles in Courage," "once he begins to compromise away his principles on one issue after another for fear that to do otherwise would halt his career and prevent future fights for principle, then he has lost the very freedom of conscience which justifies his continuance in office."
excerpt from a LA Times newspaper article...

 

[CCATLETT1984]

RE: transfering publications to CD

you need to scan them into the computer and turn them into PDF files. The PDF file is automatically searchable. One of our members might be expanding his business to include this in the future, but I am sure a few companies already do this.

 

[Jones]

RE: transfering publications to CD

Most walk-in print shops like FedExKinkos can scan hard copies to a .pdf file. From there it's just like sending a picture or video.

 

[bugei]

RE: transfering publications to CD

don't forget that the scanned image needs to be "ocr'd" (optical character recognition) before there is anything but a picture in either a pdf, or anyother format.

 

[papercu]

cD

It is a very time-consuming project at the very least and don't forget the copyright laws. The TM here are each label "Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited." Wayne

 

[CCATLETT1984]

RE: cD

for personal use, i dont see a problem with having a digital copy.
Fair Use, comes to mind.

 

[Recovry4x4]

RE: cD

I'm about to show my backside as far as computer stuff but here goes. Wouldn't the item needing to be scanned, need to be digitized to be searchable? I have many TMs scanned to PDF but they aren't searchable like the TMs released by the gov't.

 

[ida34]

RE: cD

Thats the OCR part of the process. Optical Character Recognition. This turns the picture of a page into individual words teh computer can see. As stated before, Kinkos can do it.

 

[papercu]

CD

Fair Use, comes to mind.

He was asking about commercial places to do the work, I don't think they would copy something like that unless it was his own work or public domain. Wayne

 

[CCATLETT1984]

lol, do you think that anyone at kinko's or the like gets paid enough to care what they copy?