Axel,
My personal opinion is that e-reserve materials are a tremendous step forward in terms of accessibility but they need to be in accessible formats. This would mean scanning, running OCR to convert them to text, and then editing and proofreading them for format and accuracy. This process should produce very clean and useable accessible e-reserve documents. One of the biggest problems I've seen so far in this area is when libraries skip the clean-up step and just post the OCRed documents. OCR just isn't sufficient to render accurate and usable e-reference documents without editing and proofreading. So my opinion is yes, support e-reference documents but create the documents right and invest the time to clean them up before they go on-line.
Jeff Senge
Information & Computer Access Program Coordinator
California State University, Fullerton
(714) 278-7253
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Banks [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 2:08 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]
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