Libraries have to take many things into consideration when considering starting a new digitization project. Equipment for mass digitization is usually specialized and very expensive. Only a few companies make the equipment, allowing them a strong control over the overall market. This causes prices to be inflated. For book scanners a library could pay anywhere from $40,000 to $300,000 for just one piece of equipment. Some book scanners cut the book out of the binding before scanning the pages individually. Keeping an expensive piece of equipment working past the purchase date usually means the library also has to pay a yearly maintenance or warrantee subscription, which adds to the overall price of the equipment. A good guess is 10-15% of the purchase price every year to keep the equipment running. For a $300,000 machine that comes to $30,000-$45,000 a year for as long as the machine is being used. In addition to the price of the equipment, the library must pay for server storage...
Library Digital Stuff