Atiz

MSNBC: In the Race to Create a Digital Library of All Human Knowledge, Some Are Being Left Behind

It’s a fact: The digitization of bound content is here to stay. With Google’s Book Project, The Open Content Alliance, Project Gutenberg, and others, book digitization on a large scale has become an accepted phenomenon, and the ultimate goal of creating a universal, digital library of all human knowledge is on the way to becoming a reality. That being said, a significant portion of the market who would like to digitize their content has been left behind by being underserved and even neglected altogether.

With only a small fraction of the written materials produced over the history of time in existence digitally, creating a digital library of all human knowledge is no simple task. Making information readily accessible, searchable and preserving and protecting it for generations to come is a considerable undertaking, in terms of both time and money needed.

While best-selling, mainstream English language books are being scanned by the big players such as Google in their mass digitization efforts due to the potential ad revenue tied to these books, others are often not included. Non-English language books, important historical documents of various cultures, religious books, local books, and special edition books are other examples of material that is left out by the movement that is generating mass book digitization on a large scale.

Enter Atiz Innovation, whose powerful, cost-effective book digitization solutions are opening doors for portions of the market who might not otherwise be able to join the mass book digitization movement. Atiz’s products have scanned more than 2 million books worldwide. Atiz’s book scanners help ‘bring the power to the people’: they help librarians, private collection owners and others decide what will be scanned and digitized, instead of leaving the decision in the hands of entities such as Google and Project Gutenberg — all at a price point that they can afford.

In the past, book scanning solutions available for purchase have been expensive, cumbersome, and often problematic in terms of operation. The barrier of entry was prohibitive for the relatively smaller players. Atiz is opening the door, offering book scanning solutions that are priced at one-third the cost of other offerings, and that are specially designed to address the design and execution flaws seen in conventional book scanners.

For example, using conventional scanners can result in page curvature, book spine damage, and low productivity. Additional software is then needed to correct unwanted page curvature. This software approach has proven to produce poor and often unreliable results. Atiz has taken a different approach. It solves the problem by using the design that incorporates V-shaped book cradle and transparent platen that sets up the book in an angled position for scanning by hi-speed, hi-resolution digital SLR cameras. This unique design guarantees sharp, flat-looking pages in every scan.

“We at Atiz are happy to be part of the movement to create a digital library of all human knowledge,” noted Nick Warnock president of Atiz Innovations. “Simply put, we feel our mission is to ensure that no book gets left behind.”

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