Scan all booklets in my collection

So far i’ve only scanned the front cover of the albums in my collection. Now i’ve the crazy idea of scanning all the booklets (2,000 albums for now but increasing), so i need some advice from whoever has done or is doing this work.
Now i’m using a canon lide 220 and it is fine for just scanning the cover, but if i want to scan all the booklets i need a faster scanner that is suitable for a larger volume of pages. Furthermore the choice is limited to a flatbed scanner because i’ve many digibook versions where the booklet is attached to the packaging.
So I ask you:

  • which scanner would you recommend me?
  • if someone has already done this, what settings did they use to scan and save the pdf

I have scanned quite a number of booklets of my collection, maybe 300 or 400 of a total of some 2500 CDs

Considering the amount of time this will inevitably take - whatever scanner or process you will use - I would carefully check which booklets merit the efforts. I found that on many booklets, the couple of paragraphs about the composition or the artists could more easily checked up elsewhere.

So I focused on those records, where the booklet was - for whatever reason - of specific value or provided analysis / details that could not be found elsewhere.

I used some Canon flatbed when I started out with this 15 or so years ago. On the rare occasion I need to scan a booklet these days, I use a Fujitsu Scansnap. Much faster. Downside: You need to remove the paperclips holding the booklet together, which was no big deal for me.

Also check out other sources for booklets. I found many on the record label pages, others are available on streaming services etc etc. This can reduce your scanning efforts quite substantially.

You can find PDF copies of some booklets depending on the label

I originally had a Canon 9900 for scanning my photo slides , but to be honest the Lide 220 works just as well , I tend to agree with @bbrip wholesale scanning may be a bit OTT

We have 2 scanners Lide 220 and a multi printer Canon 2540 both do the job

There are a lot of booklets on MusicBrainz that you can download. I’m doing this as a background task as and when I have the time.

It might be easier than scanning your own.

Admittedly the quality varies somewhat but some are quite decent.

QoBuz also has booklets which you can download if you have a subscription with them. These are very high quality.

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How do you search on musicbrainz for booklets? Or is it just hit or miss?

I just go to the website and search for the artist.

Once there there is a list of albums, click on the one you want and then there will be a list of releases. It’s then a point of going through them until you find a release with a booklet.