4 ms·
We reprint old books after checking out copyrights (for all books, this means pre-1930, but for some (I'd actually say most) it also means ones published up to
by trollbridge 3mo ago
We reprint old books after checking out copyrights (for all books, this means pre-1930, but for some (I'd actually say most) it also means ones published up to 1964 and 1973, depending on how the rightsholders did (or didn't) do the renewals).
We use a special guillotine type cutter to cut off the binding and then store the pages in a sealed plastic bag which goes in the archives; they're stored there indefinitely in case the book needs rescanned for some reason. We also keep the original, uncompressed copies of the books on magnetic disks.
We also go out of our way to try to find rare books published in 1931, 1932, etc. so they are ready to go once the copyright expires.
And no, no AI company has ever come to us and asked to run training on all of our scanned copies.
- palmotea 3mo ago> We reprint old books after checking out copyrights Who is we? > then store the pages in a sealed plastic bag which goes in the archives; they're stored there indefinitely Is that the best thing for archival storage? Like could things like chemical breakdown increase the humidity in the sealed bag or concentrate corrosive chemical vapors? I was under the impression the best environment was an actively climate-controlled environment.
- ComputerPerson 3mo agoThe issue is mold. Sealed plastic bags for old books is a recipe for mold. At least they're individually stored, so they would develop mold at independent rates. (And maybe the seal allows airflow.) Most books have some mold by the time they're ~100 years old, it's just not enough to cause a serious problem. Sealed enclosures (wrappings, bags, tubs) are a nightmare situation. Even packing books too tighly on shelves accelerates mold growth to problematic levels.
- starkparker 3mo agoDealing with mold in an archival environment is a nightmare, and yeah, the only thing sealing the books in plastic does is make it easier to either throw them away, or to freeze them to try to kill and then manually clean out the mold. https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/3.-emergency-management/3.8-emergency-salvage-of-moldy-books-and-paper https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/3...
- fragmede 3mo agoHow about irradiating them? Would kill the mold without the humidity problems.
- pfdietz 3mo agoIf I did that I'd seal them with silica gel to keep the humidity down.
- qingcharles 3mo agoI would think this totally dries the pages out and then they just turn to dust, from experience.
- ComputerPerson 3mo agoA well-organized system derived from binder clips works for small/medium scale collections of debound books. It's a quick and easy, and relatively cheap, way to "rebind" them in parts. The clips even provide good surfaces for labels. Archivists recommend standard ambient conditions or a little drier for long term storage. As you've said, too dry and the pages fall apart; permanent damage. I suppose the fancy silica gels that maintain specific humidities would work in bags.
- palmotea 3mo ago>> If I did that I'd seal them with silica gel to keep the humidity down. > I would think this totally dries the pages out and then they just turn to dust, from experience. They used to sell Boveda two-way humidity control packs that would keep a bag at a constant low-ish 32% humidity, but last I looked those were discontinued (it looks like they've pivoted pretty heavily to marijuana storage and higher-humidity products).
- pfdietz 3mo agoMy understanding is that the fibers in paper can become brittle if they are too dry. However, this doesn't cause the paper to break down, it just makes it vulnerable to damage if flexed. So storing paper dry is fine if it is then humidified before being stressed.
- qingcharles 3mo agoIt's possible. My only experience is with vintage newspapers that were allowed to dry out, and then when trying to open them just shatter like a carbonized volcano scroll.
- yorwba 3mo agoMost likely they don't know you exist. If you contacted them first, maybe something could be arranged...
- ck2 3mo agoor just send the books/scans to a country that doesn't recognize US copyright
- butlike 3mo agoWhy cut off the spines? Isn't that how you end up getting unattributed 'dead sea scrolls'?
- phasefactor 3mo agoEasier to send them through a duplex scanner (or put them in a flatbed one if they are fragile). Cheaper than buying the automated ones with the page turning robot arm. I have done it at home for my books since the mid-00s.
- open-paren 3mo agoDo you purchase every book two times, or do you have a home devoid of physical books that you enjoy? Genuinely curious
- flir 3mo agoNot OP, but: If it's something I want to work from, I get a printer to slice the spine off and rebind it with a ring binding. That way it lays flat on the desk. You've trashed the book (and its lifespan) but some books are for using, not keeping.
- JKCalhoun 3mo agoNot OP, but I do similar. I only de-spine a book if it is in poor condition (and I have a nice copy). Some of the material I scan is stapled instead of glued and I can remove the staples, scan and replace with new (not rusted!) staples to return the book to its original form. I have books but would have 5x as many if I could not capture them digitally. (When I go to move or go through a purge, some of the books I scanned do go to a used book store.) So I scan in part to keep my physical book-footprint smaller, but also my scans all get cleaned up and uploaded to archive.org. Mainly I scan young-adult science books from the 50's and 60's (since they were so influential and have all but disappeared except on eBay and the like).
- tourmalinetaco 3mo ago
- vander_elst 3mo agoSome source or citation or context is needed here, is this the work of a 2 person no profit or a trillion valued pre IPO company?
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- htrp 3mo ago> And no, no AI company has ever come to us and asked to run training on all of our scanned copies Yet
- Aurornis 3mo ago> And no, no AI company has ever come to us and asked to run training on all of our scanned copies The value of most very old books for AI training is very low. You don’t really want your AI training data to start biasing toward outdated writing styles. Most of the valuable knowledge has been covered again in modern texts in more depth and detail. There is interesting value in old texts and it’s important to have them archived. It’s less valuable for stirring into the giant pot of AI training data, though.
- sosodev 3mo agoIf you only care about facts, maybe. Even then I'm sure there are countless facts not described outside of old books. I have a hard time believing that text valuable to humans would not be valuable to AI.
- dgellow 3mo agoAgreed, in addition LLMs are trained on a lot of useless data, such as the whole Reddit dataset which has to be at least 90% Reddit garbage, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem. I don’t see why ai labs wouldn’t want to also train on older data
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- joquarky 3mo agoIt could be translated to contemporary prose before training.