Old Plan Scanning

Several years ago we bought a Minolta over-head camera capable of creating digital images of Record Books. In the beginning we used it exclusively for scanning our older, larger books during the back scanning project. The minolta took a secondary role in the project when we made the decision to cut these books up. The Minolta was/is slow but accurate. Our goal is to complete the back scanning project by early November, a project in which we re-scanned close to 8,000 records books containing some three million pages. Once completed we will begin another project. The new project will require us to re-activate the Minolta over-head camera. The Registry has some old, rare Plan Books that have never been scanned. These books date back to as early as 1840 and have wonderful historical value. Because of this we have been very hesitant to disassemble them. They include old Atlases of Lowell, Locks and Canals Plans, Middlesex County Town Plans and others. Our goal is to scan these plans using the over-head camera and make them available to the public through the Internet and on our in house database.