The arrival of this technology is none too soon, as videotape is again a fragile medium and an inconvenient one to search through. Researchers such as Howard Wachtlar at Carnegie-Mellon are already working on techniques to search digital videos efficiently and effectively. Libraries are not the only organizations that will make use of digitization of old content. Businesses scan or key phone bills, architectural drawings, utility location maps, and health care records. The set of pictures below show scanning of a plant, a vase, a photograph and a drawing in a scholar's notebook.
Individuals can also convert personal records and materials into computerized form.
The sales of personal scanners and OCR programs are skyrocketing, as people decide that it is easier to feed their incoming mail into a scanner than to save it as paper. Other individual conversion projects range from the cooperative volunteer effort that types in the Amtrak train schedules every six months to the classic art images being placed on the Web by enthusiastic individuals. Regretfully, a large amount of this scanning or keying is uncoordinated, perhaps duplicative, and violates copyright laws. The box below shows some projects involving conversion of paper records into electronic form being done around the world. Provide a place for anyone to put an obituary of a relative or friend.