On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:20:47 -0400, hielan' laddie wrote:

I also want to keep the old books, and to scan them properly I have to
cut pages out and feed them into an ADF. This destroys the book, so I
have to have two books, one to keep and one to scan. This is expensive,

OUCH! About a year ago, I came across a flatbed, "manual-feed" book
scanner that cost about $250 US. The scan window extended as much as
technically possible (considering cost) to the edge of the machine.
You'd place the book's "gutter" (binding side of a page) at the edge and
scan away. True, no auto doc. feeder, but far better than un-binding.

Do Google on [book scanner], and probably have a look at the suggested
search strings before you commit the phrase and start searching.

The third photo here shows one such scanner:
http://www.plustek.com/product/book3600.asp
There are a couple of distressing, glaring misspellings on that page, as
well, fwiw.

It's discounted at the first of the three dealers; that's a company I've
done business with, and can highly recommend. Cost is less than that of
many netbook computers.

As well, it's not a major job to make a copy stand for a modern digital
camera, and the image resolution isn't exactly awful. Do watch for moire
patterns on halftone images, though. Straight-line white LED arrays are
almost affordable...

I apologize if somebody else has also offered this info. The idea of
unbinding pains me, and I felt I had to post soon, although it's not all
that urgent.

Good luck, and best regards! HTH.

nb
who is not Estonian, but nevertheless
surely considers them to be good people.
("Eraklik" means "recluse", afaik.)