Scanning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign:

History

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scanning center started in 2006 as part of the Open Content Alliance. The scanning center is currently located on the fourth floor of the Main Library on the University campus. UIUC is the only higher learning institution with an onsite Internet Archive scanning center. The university pays Internet Archive between 10 cents to two dollars a page, depending on the size and material of the book.

“We are a better library for having them here and having the partnership that we do.”*

Experience of Scanners

There are two scan operators currently employed at the UIUC and one scanning supervisor. Scan operators typically work for 8 hour shifts, but this is flexible. There are loose targets of 800 pages an hour, but it depends heavily on the condition and size of the material they are scanning. In total, scan operators scan about 18,000-25,000 pages a week.

The pay is consistent with the living wage of the state. We have found this is between $13.50 and $15 per hour. UIUC does not pay the scanners directly, rather they “pay for what they do and Internet Archive pays them accordingly.”* There is a lot of turnover for the role of scan operator: “quite frankly it's not a job that everyone likes to do, sit in a dark room all day and flip pages.”*

The process begins with uploading metadata from the UIUC catalog to Internet Archive. The scan operators then use a Table top scribe, owned and created by the Internet Archive. Scanners first scan a barcode and then use the scribe to capture an image of each page. The scribe is responsible for handling each page of the material.

“It's a lot of just scan the barcode, and set the book up, calibrate things correctly, once it is calibrated, start flipping, and then finish and then that is submitted off to be reviewed and then republished.”*

Next the image is uploaded to a platform to be processed, called republishing in the Internet Archive metadata. This consists of cropping the image and inserting structural metadata like page numbers. This used to be done at UIUC by the scanning supervisor, but is now done off site and largely by employees outside of the US.

While we do not have specific oral history accounts of scanners at the scanning center at UIUC, a question arises, 'how much can we assume is similar to that of accounts at other scanning centers?' Below are exerpts of an account of a scanner also in the university enviornment:

• “I was not fairly compensated for much of my time with the IA.”
• “Our environment in the second location was very restrictive and detached from the rest of campus and felt like being shoved off to the side, with no access to amenities and no parking despite ample university parking being available right beside the building. We were provided decently ergonomic equipment for scanning, but often had to ask many times before being accommodated.”
• “I started as a scanner. By the time I left, I was a scanner who also trained and supervised the other scanners working with me. My typical work day involved coming in, gathering materials, scanning for several hours, taking lunch, then scanning for several additional hours. I occasionally did organizational work, trained new partners and performed equipment maintenance.”

Collection

Since 2006, scan operators at UIUC have scanned over 31,789 books. These books include specific patron requests, books on Illinois history and culture as well as extensive collections of 19th century "triple-decker" novels.

*Quotes attributed to interviews with Internet Archive staff.