[Genealib] Scanning microfilm

[Larry Naukam]

We have an HP desktop and use a Minolta ST-200 scanner for making copies. It
came with its own scanning software (proprietary) but can save in a JPG,
PNG, and TIFF format. We don't have an OCR software for that machine. What
we use on our digitizing machines is Imageware from a German company
(proprietary). We have to use what comes with the hardware. The scanning is
always done by paid staff.

Much of what we digitize is handwritten so OCR software is not really good
for it at all. And what happens sometimes is that an OCR's index of some
sort comes back with the weirdest results. One puts in "married" and gets a
hit on "harried", but when you look at the actual underlying sentence its
"married" 


(In a recent meeting with a local historical society, we were discussing
scanning microfilm and are looking for any advice from small in house
projects.  What hardware and software did you use? How accurate is OCR? was
the work done by staff or volunteers?)