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AngliaGT - calling Doug! calling Doug!

NutmegCT

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Doug - when you drove from California to Virginia, what size truck did you rent?

And what was the approximate cost?

I *may* be doing a similar trip in a few months.

Thanks.
Tom M.
 

JPSmit

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Doug - when you drove from California to Virginia, what size truck did you rent?

And what was the approximate cost?

I *may* be doing a similar trip in a few months.

Thanks.
Tom M.

Good on you Tom - sounds like an elaborate April Fools Joke is in the making. Don't worry your secret is safe with us :jester:
 
OP
NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Sure hope it's not an April Fool joke. Might be delivering a couple hundred boxes of books to a digitizing center. USPS is cheapest for shipment, but at $32 per 50 pound box, shipping of 500 boxes is slightly (!) beyond the budget.
 

Basil

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Taking the books from CT to CA? Once the books are digitized, will you have to retrieve them from the digitizing center (thus doubling the cost for transportation)?
 

Gliderman8

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Isn’t there a similar service on the east coast?
Boston? New York?
 
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NutmegCT

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Thanks gentlemen. The digitizing idea was approved, and it's up to me to find the least expensive way to get it done. I want to make the books (aircraft maintenance manuals, no longer under copyright) available to the public.

So far, least expensive is a library consortium with a scanning center in Arizona. They're actually free - but I have to get the books to them. Shipping via USPS would be around $15K - out of my budget. But renting a 26 foot box truck one-way would be around $2500, per UHaul.

The Arizona service scans and then shelves/files the books locally, then posts them on their public research website; I no longer have space for them, so returning the books (and the truck) isn't the issue. Flying home is cheaper!

There are several other digitizing services closer to me (Boston, NYC, Phila., Washington DC, etc.). But the cheapest one is $3/book plus 12 cents per page. For the amount of books I've got, that would be around $150,000 - plus shipping. No can do.
 

DavidApp

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I hope they check their work during the process. A company I worked with locally had their parts books scanned then dumped the books. When we came to use the books we found that they had scanned them in the wrong format so we had lost about 1/3 of every page.
Kind of inconvenient but the upper management that made the decision did not have to deal with the problem.

David
 

Keith_M

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Tom,
Why don't you take 5 boxes at a time in an old Mercedes? Think of the fun you'd have!

If you're really planning to do this (in a truck, I mean), I hop you plan to stop in Utah.

Keith
 

Boink

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I once shipped a lot of stuff via Amtrak of all people... on pallets. It was the cheapest way to go, but the start and finish destinations need to have a regular Amtrak station (since you must deliver and pick-up at those locations).
 
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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Kieth - I've heard rumors that you and Liz make some tasty waffles ...

Mark - never even thought about Amtrak. They run between Mass. and Arizona, but probably still too expensive for my ca. 15,000 lbs of books. I'll check it out.
 

anarchy99

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You can probably do a freight type service for cheaper than anything else. Having done the crosscountry Uhaul thing several times, Id look into freighting it.
 

DNK

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...but probably still too expensive for my ca. 15,000 lbs of books. I'll check it out.

What's the total tonnage you can carry in one of those trucks?
that's 7.5 tons

That's a $h!t lot of weight
 
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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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Yikes - totally forgot to check UHaul truck weight limits. You're right - 7400 lbs limit for a 26 foot truck.

OK - on to Plan B (or K, or W, or whatever)
 

JPSmit

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Might be worth looking into donating them to a museum with the understanding that they be digitized.
 

Gliderman8

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What’s the cost to buy the equipment and do the work in-house?
 
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NutmegCT

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"Might be worth looking into donating them to a museum with the understanding that they be digitized."

We're a museum! We don't have space for all the items (they're stuffed into a corner under a B-29 wing now), but still want to share them with the public. Any recipient would still have to commit to a very large - and expensive - scanning project. Might as well organize the project ourselves, especially with the free service down in Arizona. Google Books stopped accepting materials back in August 2013. Internet Archive will do the job, but charges between $3 and $5 per item, plus 12 cents per page. That's around $150K for our materials. And many other museums (aviation related) have similar collections, so they're looking for help too.

"What’s the cost to buy the equipment and do the work in-house?"

Large-table flat bed high res scanner - ca. $7500.
Book cradle scanner with grid mapping correction - ca. $18K.
Figuring 15 minutes minimum per item, only 1250 hours for 5000 items.
We're volunteers at four hours per day. Four hours per day for 1250 hours = 312 days.
Still doesn't include professional software, image storage and hosting.

So - seems getting the books to an imaging service is the way to go.
 

DNK

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Yikes - totally forgot to check UHaul truck weight limits. You're right - 7400 lbs limit for a 26 foot truck.

OK - on to Plan B (or K, or W, or whatever)

3 trucks
Caravan Road trip
 

Boink

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Mark - never even thought about Amtrak. They run between Mass. and Arizona, but probably still too expensive for my ca. 15,000 lbs of books. I'll check it out.

I was mostly shipping boxes of books. The rate was unbelievable (though you have to promptly collect it when it arrives). They even put some sort of shrink-wrap around the pallets. The only restriction is that they don't want anything fragile or breakable... but i did include some framed art and to them that they were bicycle wheels (in a box). :eek:
 
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