I would like to convert an old book into digital text and am trying to
find a reputable firm that would do this for a reasonable price
(ideally, less than $3 per page).  I'm not looking to do it myself. 
The copyright on the book is expired and the book is in the public
domain, but the text itself has not been digitized on any of the ebook
sites.  Can you find a good company that offers this service?  It need
not be in the USA -- I understand there are several in India or the
Phillipines but I have had no luck finding them.

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Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 06 Sep 2003 14:36 PDT

Hi joshp100,

Is this the kind of service you're looking for? 

Princeton Imaging
http://www.roottech.com/

If so, I can find you others that are similar. It is difficult
however, to find prices for many of these services. Most do not
advertise prices online.

Regarding format - as you point out, OCR is time-consuming and highly
prone to errors. So are you ok with just imaging?

Let me know, and I'll see what I can find. 

-K~

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Clarification of Question by joshp100-ga on 06 Sep 2003 21:16 PDT

Hi - Sorry if I have not been specific enough.  

I'm looking for a firm that would handle the entire process of imaging
and OCR with editorial correction, or as I understand it, some firms
simply retype the text to avoid errors from scanning/OCR.  I do not
need images of the book, I need the actual text in digital format. 
There are also a number of firms that digitize documents for storage
at a relatively high cost (5-10$/page).  I'm really looking for a low
cost transcription or text handling firm.

In terms of finding a "good company" I had hoped to have an answer
from someone with first or secondhand knowledge of what this process
entails.  Searching myself, I found many copmpanies that sell some
part of the service but little info on the quality of the firm.  The
comments from folks essentially saying they would do the work are in
some aspects close to the sort of answer I'm looking for, although
ideally, I would have info from someone who has used them and can
recommend them as a complete solution.

Is that clear enough?  I think comments from someone who has used the
firm or some way of recommending them is essential to being able to
answer the question, as well as a solution that gos from bound book to
digital text (the book need not remain bound).

Thanks

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Request for Question Clarification by easterangel-ga on 08 Sep 2003 06:46 PDT

Hi joshp100-ga!

I have found services that you can use but the problem is the pricing.
The reason is that these companies determine the price according to
the quality and complexity of the work.

Will just a list of companies (in the US) with their contact numbers
be enough as a legitimate answer? In this way you can request for a
quote for the document you want to scan.

Thanks!

What's the book?  Somehere here might hunt down a digital copy.

Otherwise, post an ad on craigslist -- you'll quickly find someone
willing to do it for $100.

Hi,

How do you propose getting a copy of the book to an overseas outfit?

I would have thought that the best bet was to do it yourself or
sub-contract it to a local kiddie.

The cost of a scanner and the OCR software is, of course, trivial.

I'm pretty confidant that the book has never been digitized.  It is a
sort of manual rather than a work of literature -- I'd rather not
reveal more about the title -- but the question is seeking a firm that
will digitize the text not a copy of the text itself.  I want to have
full use of the text (within the law) and not be restricted by someone
elses previous handling of it and GPLing or Creative Commons handling,
etc.

On the OCR and scanning suggestion -- this is actually quite time
consuming and error prone for a 200-300 page book.  Someone familiar
with the conversion of bound books that has specialized set ups may be
able to do it quickly, and deliver a well formatted text, but the
error rates on even good OCR software make the task laborious.

As for transporting the book, I'd ship a physical copy of it to the
transcription service.

Hi joshp100-ga! 
 
Atlast I have found a service that you can use which is in India,
which is involved in converting old book into digital text at very
competitive rate.

Vishal Transcription Service
No 5 Sakthi Complex (off IT highway)
PTC Quarters, Chennai: 600096
Tamil Nadu, India

Phone: 091-44-24960433
Contact person:  Mr. Narendar Kumar
Email ID: narenmt@rxpost.net, narenmt@hotmail.com


Thanks!