Magazine archiving

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

As this section of the  forum frequently throws up useful information on non ME matters I thought I would ask the following.

I am a member of a motoring club that would like to create a digital archive of the clubs magazine.  The club has been in existence for over 70 years with over 600 magazines published in that time with the prospect of a lot more in the future.

The idea is to scan the paper archive and use readily available software of the “Flipping Books” type to view. The problem is in creating an index.  What is needed is a searchable index, authors name, article title, issue number and so on.  This, ideally, would be integrated into the viewing software,  That is to say, one searches the index, finds the article, clicks on it, a new tab opens, the relevant issue opens, pages turn to the article.

I’ve found software that, I think, can do this, problem is that it is expensive and intended for the “professional” market and, while money is available for the project, not the big money needed for that sort of software.

So, over to you guys, any thoughts?

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Dunno what software you plan to use to do the scanning but ReadIrisPro isn’t silly expensive and claims to be able to build a printable / displayable index from the document scan data.

It is also supposed to be able to retain page layout and formatting including diagrams and pictures.

I have a 10+ year old version which works but needs either too much manual help or more time than I was prepared to spend learning it so I pretty much don’t use it. Mostly bought for “that one job” anyway, which got abandoned due to exponential faff multiplication.

Latest versions are said to have automated all that. ReadIris is supplied by Canon so a reputable supplier with a track record of competence.

Clive

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Nowadays – feed them into AI and it will not only index them but write the next ten years……

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

Thanks for the replies.  Judging form the number of replies I’m thinking the software wanted doesn’t exist at the level needed?

I’ve seen various digitally archived club magazines, very variable in quality.  The worst being poorly scanned pages and no index through to excellent quality reproduction with an integrated searchable index nicely embedded into the clubs webpages.  That particular archive used readily available software to show the magazine, the indexing bit was bespoke software created by a club member.

Again, thanks for the replies, the search continues…

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