I used a hand scanner to scan the profiles from the West Point Foundry "workers houses" from the field and then with Corel scan to vector software bring them into state plane coordinates in AutoCAD back in 1992-1993. It worked pretty well as you could adjust the input and all the graph paper lines would disappear leaving only the drawing. Once they were cleaned up and often "closed" as polygons they were exported back to image software where the strata were painted or filled further (then AutoCAD was mostly filling closed objects with hatching. There was a certain satisfaction in that what was drawn was what was "framed" by the rest of the drawing.
There was just a recent NY Times review of some of the scanners by David Pogue which he attempts to get the scoop on the Harry Potter book which is pretty funny over at the tech reviews he does. Some work solo some work with a notebook computer. I recall having to check with the library if you can scan some things because of light issues. I once stood on a large portable ladder the Map Room of the NY Public Library had to photograph a large scale map which hinted at a partnership with a large dairy owner with then "Boss" Tweed administration to control the land around the proposed new aqueduct. The map was the largest I'd ever seen on paper and tough to photograph, considering we were interested in the one section, where the high voltage underground cable that was going to come through from biogeneration at the world's second largest sugar refinery in Yonkers to the power grid at Dunwoodie, NY.
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