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To: Homer_J_Simpson
They have the microfiche files at my local university library (UC Santa Cruz). They let you make copies off the readers. Then I transcribe them into Word and post from there.

I would like to thank you for going to so much trouble to create these new transcriptions and for posting these on Free Republic.

When you say "transcribe", does this mean that you are retyping each of these articles? If so, have you considered instead using an OCR system to automate some of the work?

8 posted on 06/02/2008 9:34:42 AM PDT by snowsislander
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To: snowsislander
have you considered instead using an OCR system to automate some of the work?

I tried scanning an article into Word. The result was unsatisfactory. For one thing the original is not good quality, being a photocopy of a photograph of a newspaper. There are lines and other flaws that confuse the program. So it would take a lot of work to correct the errors. Which brings me to problem number 2: The resulting copy did not act like regular Word text that can be edited. I admit I gave up rather easily and went back to manual transcription. At the time I was out of work and I found it to be a calming way to pass the time. But mid-May I got hired at another company and now my time is much more limited. I have articles saved through the rest of June. They just need to be html formated. I have July and August copied and ready to transcribe, but I won't be able to get to them for a while. Maybe necessity will be the mother of me figuring out how to make better use of technology. I don't think I have you on my ping list. I will check and add you so you don't miss any of the coming attractions. There are some good ones, if I do say so myself.

10 posted on 06/02/2008 8:48:53 PM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson (For events that occurred in 1938, real time is 1938, not 2008.)
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