Guide to Using Reference Scanners

There are currently three scanners available around the reference area for public use.  In the main reference room, there is a Bird's Eye Scanner as well as one small flatbed scanner.  There is an additional flatbed scanner located at northwest side of the reference desk for public use. 

Bird's Eye Scanner

Tips for beginning the scanning process:

• Make sure the "Ready to Scan" message is displayed on the LCD on the scanner
• If the "Ready to Scan" message is not displayed, press and hold down the green button on the scanner until the light comes on - wait for the "Ready to Scan" message to appear before proceeding
• If the screen is off on the monitor attached to the scanner, you need to touch it to wake it up
• If the computer is not displaying the scanner interface (and you see a normal desktop screen), click on the "Start" menu and then choose "KIC" (the scanner software). Do not open the Scan folder on the desktop, it will not get you anywhere!
• If there are problems with the computer, ask at the Reference Desk for assistance
  

 Tips on scanning/file storage/etc:

• TIFF files are usually too large to email - you should send scanned files to Netfiles, or save them on a USB device
• If you scan something and the only image on the screen is a sliver of an image, it is most likely the security cord (found behind/above the scanner surface) that is interfering with the scanner. Move this cord up and out of the way of the scanner surface
  
• If you are scanning two pages, and one is a blank white page, the print on the other page will most likely come out blurry. Fix this by choosing "auto scan" for the right or left page only.
• Black and white text almost always comes out better if scanned in gray scale
• A black and white scan will produce the smallest file size
  
• The "advanced mode" on the KIC screen reflects the options that are found on the different buttons on the front scanner panel. These options are disabled if changed on the scanner panel, you must change the settings using the options found on the KIC screen
• In the "advanced mode," choosing "book scan" will attempt to correct for the curvature of a page if you cannot get the book to lie flat

Cropping images:

• Select the image you want to crop, and then click "details"
• Select the area you want to crop by using the touch screen, and then click "crop"
• You can go back to any image in the scan queue at any time to crop

 Copying files to a shared disk & combining files:

• If you are transferring files to a USB device, the scanner will let you  know if your USB drive does not have enough room to hold all of the files
• There is no special procedure for safe removal of a USB device from the scanner (as is typical on most PCs) - just wait for the scanner to end the session before removing the device
• If you choose  "Copy to shared disk" as the destination for their scanned files, the files will be sent to all of the computers in the Reference Room for you to transfer to Netfiles, combine into a single PDF file, or email, etc.
  
• A folder entitled "Book Scanner Files" will appear in the upper left-hand corner on the desktop of each machine.
• Folders within this folder are identified by data and time - naming your directory at the beginning of the scanning process will make it easier for you to find your files later
• To combine scanned files/pages into one PDF document, follow this procedure:
  • Select all files you want to combine into a single PDF
  • In the "File" menu, choose "Combine into PDF/Acrobat"
  • This automatically launches Acrobat and imports all the files you selected
    
  • Click "Next" to begin the process of combining into one file
  • When the file has finished combining, you can name and save it
    
  • Note that the only way to collocate files into a single PDF is to send the files to the Reference Room computers first
    

Flatbed Scanners

These are easy to use, but keep in mind:

• Open the "Scan and Edit Images" folder on the desktop of the computers; through this you can open Acrobat 8.0 or Photoshop Elements, both of which can be used to scan

To create a PDF

• With Adobe Acrobat 8.0, select “Create PDF” from the start-up screen or menu and then select “ Create PDF from scanner"
• You may select options for double-sided, color and black & white scanning
• Select where you want to save the document before you scan it
  • If the PDF is saved on the computer, you can email it to yourself, upload it to Netfiles or transfer it to a USB drive.
• To create a multiple page document as you’re scanning – the application will ask after each page you’ve scanned if you would like to scan another page in order to create a multi-page document.
• Multiple one page documents can be combined into one multiple page document by selecting “File → Combine Files”

To scan web ready images or documents:

• With Adobe Photoshop Elements, select "Edit → Enhance Photos" from the opening screen, then select "File → Import → Canoscan 8800F
• To preview scan your image or document, click "Preview"
  • This will give you a rough scan of your image or document to verify placement. The quality of the preview scan is not the same as the final scan, it is just a rough draft.
• To scan image:
  • Click "Scan"
  • Select the option to either retouch and save your image or scan other images.
  • "Scan other images" will save the images to the work area of Photoshop but does not save them anywhere else.
• To edit images, select "Retouch and save the image"
• Saving web-ready images for a website or to email can be done two ways:
  • 1.  Select "File → Save As." Then from the Format dropdown list, select "JPEG" or "Compuserve GIF" OR 2. Select "File → Save for web."
    
  • If a scanned image is too large, the size may be changed in the "New Size" boxes. To change size, change the percentage and click "Apply."
  • To save the image to disk, click "OK."