If digitising a historic collection of books is important to you, you can purchase a ridiculously expensive commercial scanner. Or you can make a prototype version from Google Books using a vacuum cleaner, a scanner and other components for a lot less.
It costs around $1500, but it would be a great way for a makerspace to build social capital with libraries and other institutions by making the scanner available for preserving important works. The linear scanner is designed to not damage the book, using vacuum suction to turn the pages. The source link below has both a PDF design document and a software clone.
linear books scanner [Google Code via The How-To Geek]
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