Hand scanners

In the DistList sent out today (do you *always* operate on Sundays?
...), I see an inquiry from Annette Morris of Georgetown Law Library
about experiences with digital scanning equipment for any purposes,
especially preservation.  She beats me to this question by a matter of
hours:  at a meeting on Friday, I was asked to send you an inquiry about
what I take it is a related matter, specifically, the use *by readers*
of *hand-held* scanning/copying equipment in special collections reading
rooms (printed books/mss): what experiences have people had; what
equipment (if any) appears to work well, what not so well; has there
been measurable/observable impact on materials; what policies, if any,
have been developed to regulate the use of such equipment by readers,
and may these (where they exist) be shared?  I assume other libraries
have already received requests from readers asking to be be allowed to
use such equipment; we have, and are trying to gather information to
help us decide how to respond on a "policy" rather than an ad hoc basis.

Thanks!  Dan

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:25
                 Distributed: Sunday, October 27, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-25-006
                                  ***