Scanning technology
ULB scans various originals for different purposes. The creation of digital facsimiles (faithful reproductions) of historical works requires a different process than the production of convenience scans and simple copies. Fragile materials require different handling than robust originals, and small books can often be scanned more quickly than large-format works. In order to do justice to the very different materials and purposes of use, various scanning techniques are used in the Digitisation Centre.
The conservation copy stand (Grazer Buchtisch - GBT) is specially designed for scanning historical and sensitive originals. A special book cradle allows to scan at a slight opening angle of 90° to 110°. Single pages can be carefully drawn in by an adjustable vacuum arm. A high-resolution digital camera creates scans using the single-shot method. Valuable books can thus be scanned gently and almost contact-free. At ULB, digitised copies of medieval manuscripts, incunabula and other fragile originals are created on the GBT.
| Dimensions | 81 x 81 x 178 cm |
| max. original | 65 x 45 cm |
| Scan time approx. | 20 sec. |
| Resolution | 300 – 800 dpi |
| Opening angle | 90° - 110° |
| max. book thickness | ~ 13 cm |
| max. weight | 80 kg |
| Cameras | Hasselblad H3DII-50, Nikon D 850 |
The GBT-T is the "little brother" of the Conservation Copy Stand GBT. The design is based on the larger model, but is much more compact. On the special book cradle, individual book pages can be fixated manually with so-called lead snakes and glass wedges. The pages can be centred with the help of a laser. A high-resolution digital camera creates scans using the single-shot method. The Traveller is suitable for scanning fragile and valuable small and medium format originals and can be used as a mobile scanning station.
| Dimensions | 82 x 57 x 33 |
| Original | 42x 32 cm |
| Scanning time approx. | 19 sec. |
| Resolution | 300 – 800 dpi |
| Opening angle | 90° - 110° |
| max. book thickness | 10 cm |
The SupraScan is a line scanner with movable running light. The parallel scanning of the original by the moving light and scan head guarantees high-quality scans, even for originals larger than DIN A1. These are positioned on a material-friendly, flexible book cradle and gently smoothed by a glass plate to achieve an ideal scan result. The SupraScan is a specialised scanner for scanning large books, newspapers, maps, plans and other large-format originals.
| Dimensions | 199 x 184 x 162 cm |
| Original | A1+ / 61,8 x 110 cm |
| Scanning time approx. | 19 sec. |
| Resolution | 300 – 1000 dpi |
| Opening anglel | 180° |
| max. book thickness | 25 cm |
| max. weight | 40 kg |
The special scanners are primarily used to digitise valuable, historic, large format or fragile holdings. The Digitisation Centre also has overhead scanners that are used for the production of convenience scans and copies for interlibrary loans, the campus delivery service and electronic course collections.