Hi Dick--and others:

I'm not sure whether my question came across the way I had intended.
Allow me to clarify: I was *not* talking about programs that OCR in
connection with scanning in a print article. I was talking about
programs that can pull any imaged-based pdf documents previously created
(e.g. image-based files from JSTOR or those already placed on e-reserve)
and then OCR them "on the fly."

I assume that the problems are likely to be the same: I guess that-no
matter when the OCRing occurs-the accuracy of the OCRed product, at this
point in time, is inferior to that of the original. The questions/issues
for me are this:
 
1. Can we assume that OCR technology will continue to improve to the
point where we can say "Well, the OCRed article is darn close (or
sufficiently close) to the original"? 

2. Is there such a thing as "sufficiently close" in quality? Wouldn't
any difference in quality, no matter how small, go against the grain of
an "equal access" philosophy or mandate?

3. If we answer questions 1 and 2 with "yes" or "quite likely", then, it
seems to me, we can continue to simply use scanned-in, image-based pdf
files for our e-reserves. (Technical access solutions will soon to be
mature enough to make image-based pdf files close-to-fully accessible.
Therefore there is no need to change the currently dominant practice of
using scanned-in, image-only pdf files for our e-reserves---so the
argument would go.) 

4. If the answer to questions 1 or 2 is "no" or "probably not within the
near future", then we need to think about ways of establishing
e-reserves within the context of a larger system that allows us to get
article files in their original text-based format and to place them on
reserve (without any optical scanning involved) in either their original
format or some converted text-based format. This, of course, touches on
legal issues, involving among others, copyright law and interpretations
thereof.

Greetings,

Axel



-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Banks [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 4:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: electronic reserve and image-based pdf files

Actually both products mentioned below are quite good. Even the cheaper
OCR
packages like TextBridge and some others I can't remember the name of at
the moment are quite good. Almost any inexpensive scanner comes with a
scanning package and part of the package has OCR options.

As with any OCR package. The cleaner the text the better the OCR.

Dick

At 10:14 PM 4/15/2002, you wrote:
>Thanks Trevor! I'm not familiar with Omnipage. It sounds as if it is
>similar to Kurzweil 1000, which, as I understand it, is capable of
OCRing
>any document that can be potentially printed, including scanned-in
pages
>of articles. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) I would like to hear
from
>folks who have experience with this Kurzweil 1000 function (or with
>Omnipage).  What are the current problems? Are they likely to get
resolved
>as technology advances?
>
>I'm trying to form an opinion on this emerging technology: Should we,
as
>accessibility-advocating librarians, keep up our resistance to an
>electronic reserve system that contains image-based/scanned-in
material,
>or should we concede that advancing technology makes concerns about the
>accessibility of image-based documents increasingly a non-issue? Should
we
>pursue strategies that would result in the placement of accessible,
>text-based materials on e-reserves, or is it wiser to channel our
energy
>into a different direction?
>
>What do you people think?
>
>Axel
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Trevor Wilks [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 12:50 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Docutek's electronic reserve product (ERes)--update
>
>
>Hi Axel,
>
>Our E-reserve just uses PDF format. Last year this was really
problematic
>and we had to test the Acrobat 5.0 OCR plug-in (Paper Capture 3.0)
which
>was a unsuitable both to students and Library staff.
>
>This year we purchased Omnipage 11 which will OCR an image only PDF
file
>and we teach students to do this themselves. Its not always very
accurate
>depending on the quality of the original scanned material but it seems
to
>be working quite well.
>
>Trevor
>
>Trevor Wilks - Manager
>Adaptive Technology Centre
>Student Support Services
>Student, Alumni and Community Services
>University Services
>Auchmuty Library
>University of Newcastle
>University Drive Callaghan
>NSW 2308 Australia
>Ph-02 49218684
>Mobile-0418 753739
>Fax-02 49217410
>Email- [log in to unmask]