I'm gonna be busy!

[Chuck Bishop]

The BOD recently approved equipment to digitize our records. I've purchased a digital DSLR camera, copy stand, LED lights, remote shutter release, and memory card. We have 70+ stock books with 200+ pages in each folder and 100 order books/IBM books each with around 300 pages per book. This does not include various correspondence books. I've copied 4 stock books so far.

I built a platform and secured it to the copy stand base. I made small pieces of wood and glued them to the platform so all I have to do is drop the paper within the the border and it will be aligned with the camera. The LED lights are mounted behind and above the camera and shine directly down onto the paper. Push the remote control shutter release and the picture is taken. Take the paper off and put it in the alignment tray to the left of the copy stand and put another paper back on the copy stand. Pretty simple and organized. It's just going to take a lot of time to complete the project.

This shouldn't impact my doing research letters in a timely manner. It will probably take 1 1/2 hours to do each stock book.

[Eric Estes]

This is outstanding news. Thanks for sharing.

[Phillip Carr]

Thank you for all of this effort. You are definitely doing a Great Service for all of us.

[Eric Estes]

Chuck, now all you will need is that "illegible fountain pen hand script" OCR software and you will be in high cotton. :rotf::rotf:

Seriously though, thank you and the board for doing this. Electronic insurance against the unthinkable.

[greg conomos]

Very nice. Lots of thought and work went into that.

Will the digital versions be available to PGCA members?

[edgarspencer]

This has got to be faster than using a flatbed scanner. How is the quality? Could you post a random page so we can see the quality?

[Chuck Bishop]

Eric, don't I wish there was such an OCR program out there! It would be far superior to my brains OCR since I sometimes have trouble reading the words and letters.

Greg, that's a decision for the BOD but I doubt it.

Edgar, each picture is in the 6 to 7 meg range. I don't think the BOD would mind posting a random image. I'll try it but I don't know if it will upload due to it's size. I can tell you that I can really zoom in without loosing any quality. I can shoot a picture as fast as I can put the page on the platform, push a button, take the page off, and load another!

Well, the original file size is to large so I had to knock it down in size but you'll get a good idea of the quality.

[CraigThompson]

90 minutes per book seems very fast to me !

More power to you !

[CraigThompson]

Now once all this stuff is downloaded will it become available to be purchased on a disk ? By that I mean the entire thing ?

[Jim DiSpagno]

Great job Chuck. Do you have a ballpark figure on the cost of a disk? Wouldn't that decrease the number of requests for letters? What would prevent a person from providing letters once they purchased the disk? I know you would try to offset the cost of this equipment with sales of the disk but now you are the only game in town and that's a good thing.

[Craig Larter]

I know what a task you have. I had the AH Fox records digitized. We had about 5000 pages 11x14. Thanks for your efforts!

[Chuck Bishop]

Craig, that's a decision only the BOD can make.

[Chuck Bishop]

Craig Larter, I didn't know the Fox Assn. did it. Bob Beach gave me the idea of using a camera. I would have picked your brain if i had known it. Did you do it internally or outsource it?

[edgarspencer]

I'll take 217404 Please.
Are the columns to the right of the weight legible? I remember you showing these to us, and If I recall, you said these were the photocopies of the original books done at Remington.
The quality is quite good.

[edgarspencer]

Now once all this stuff is downloaded will it become available to be purchased on a disk ? By that I mean the entire thing ?

Great job Chuck. Do you have a ballpark figure on the cost of a disk? Wouldn't that decrease the number of requests for letters? What would prevent a person from providing letters once they purchased the disk? I know you would try to offset the cost of this equipment with sales of the disk but now you are the only game in town and that's a good thing.

I don't think Chuck ever said the discs would be available, and I, for one, would be opposed to that. The Official PGCA letter is one of the few sources of income, and when you consider that the Newsletter is nearly the cost of an annual membership, Letter sales, along with the Raffle Gun, and Silent Auction are pretty important.

[Brian Dudley]

It is great that we are moving in this direction. Save on bookcase space.

[Craig Larter]

Chuck: Our records were copied on 11x14 paper so I had them run through a large hi speed auto feed copy machine (printer) which have the capability of making individual pdf files for each page as well as a paper copies. I had a local printer do it and the cost was under $2k.

[Chuck Bishop]

Edgar, you are correct on the revenue sources. The columns which include stock dimensions and columns to the right of it looks to have been filled in by pencil and are very faded. Hopefully I can read the data for the letter. Info to the right of the weight column just contain month and day a procedure was completed. The date is sometimes helpful to determine completion date for the letter. BTW, the frame size is listed in this style stock book. Note the 1/2 frame size is not a true 1/2 frame but a 1 1/2 frame. The earlier style stock books don't list frame sizes.

[Chuck Bishop]

Craig, we were worried auto feed would gobble up and possibly destroy the pages plus many of our pages have edges folded over. We couldn' afford to take that risk since the chance of getting another access to the originals is slim.

[Dean Romig]

Very nice. Lots of thought and work went into that.

Will the digital versions be available to PGCA members?


No it will not. These records, whether paper or digital, are the basis for our PGCA Research Letters.





.

[Dean Romig]

Gentlemen All:: - The digitized recording that Chuck is doing is for secure record-keeping only in the case that our copies of the books become damaged or destroyed. They will never be made available in any form other than a PGCA Reseach Letter.

Research Letters are the PGCA's primary source of operating revenue and the only data we have for the Research Letters is taken entirely from these records.






.

[Phillip Carr]

It's great to have the records backed up electronically. Natural disasters do occur. Paper wears and ink fades. There is no guarantee that if these records or part of the records were destroyed Remington would ever let the records be copied again. A great proactive move.
If even one copy was sold, before you wold know it would be on the Internet.

[Craig Larter]

Some collectors may desire a pdf of the actual record in addition to a Parker letter. Maybe this could be considered with an additional fee. Craig

[Bill Zachow]

Has the BOD considered offering to purchase the Parker order/production books currently held by the Delgregos? I think they have 2 or 3. Perhaps $2000 per book could jar them loose and the money spent recovered from additional letters or a special fund raiser. I would be willing to contribute.

[Chuck Bishop]

Bill, I know there have been many attempts made but that's something that others in the PGCA are involved in. I stay out of it!

[Dean Romig]

Bill, I know there have been many attempts made but that's something that other officers in the PGCA are involved in. I stay out of it!

Edited






.

[Gary Carmichael Sr]

I know of a couple more out there too! would be nice if we could bring these "home" Gary

[Eric Eis]

I know of a couple more out there too! would be nice if we could bring these "home" Gary

Or just get copies of them...

[keavin nelson]

Well the disk would be desirable, but somehow it sure wouldn't replace the letter from Chuck, which in my opinion truly adds to the value of a gun.:bowdown:

Nice to know the records will be preserved, but I suggest, and you may already be doing this, backing them up on an external hard drive.:)

[Chuck Bishop]

Yes Keavin, backups are being done outside of the hard drive. External storage is cheap these days.

[Mike Franzen]

Chuck it was great getting to meet you in person at the HOF banquet. We're fortunate to have you doing all this hard work.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Very cool.