P.S. Scanners

I've been using flatbed scanners at my local libraries lately for this art project I'm doing, and I've used five different scanners so far, based on what direction I was heading at the time for other errands. And I can confidently say that not all scanners are created equal.

Poplar Creek Public Library's Sonya Crawshaw Branch has a dreadful copier/scanner that does not want to scan an image larger than 8 1/2" x 11" -- even when I tell it to. It tries to pick an 8 1/2" x 11" area of the page that it thinks I want and scans just that part.

Both the Sonya Crawshaw Branch and the Bartlett Public Library have free scanning service, but their copier/scanners either need a bypass key or you need to insert money while scanning, and then try to get your money back from the machine when you're done. I've had no problem with this at the Bartlett Library yet, but at the branch the machine ate my money once.

The Bloomingdale Public Library, Gail Borden Public Library, the Hanover Park Branch Library, and the Poplar Creek Public Library all have touch-screen flatbed scanners that are not combination copier/scanners. Touch screens are easy to use, but have the disadvantage of portions of their screens becoming less sensitive and need to be touched harder over time (and then, if you use them too long, it really throws you when you come back to the library and have to use a mouse on a computer again). Of them, Bloomingdale Public Library's scanner had the most vibrant color (or at least the others default to some more muted color setting; I haven't tried to adjust them).