Recently installed scanners at UF’s libraries will help visually impaired students translate words into sound.
Five on-campus libraries, with funding from a UF’s Technology Fee grant, are now home to Knowledge Imaging Center Bookeye Scanners.
The machines, which were installed earlier this month and are free for students to use, have a function that scans pages, and then transfers the words to an MP3 file so students can listen to what they’re reading.
The scanners, which cost about $26,200 each, were bought with a $131,000 grant, said Stacey Ewing, the associate chair of Library West.
The five scanners were installed at Library West, the Marston Science Library, the Education Library, the Special and Area Studies Collection and the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, she said.
They can scan up to 22 pages per minute, compared to three scans per minute
on a regular, flatbed scanner.
“It will help faculty and graduate assistants share PDFs to online classes right away,” Ewing said.
She said the machine also allows students to send scanned files via email and crop the scanned image before sending it or downloading it onto a USB flash drive. The scanner can also condense two pages of a book onto one scanned page, she said.
Courtney Spillman, a UF chemistry sophomore studying to be a teacher, said the scanners will also benefit professors, who have to spend their own, unpaid time scanning books and articles.
“This would make it easier to print out stories rather than copying each book page by page,” the 20-year-old said.
Lawson Jaffe, a 22-year-old UF biology and economics senior, said while the machines will make scanning more efficient, they might not be necessary.
“I mean, is it really that important?” Jaffe said. “We could probably make it without it.”
