If digitizing a historic collection of books is important to you or your local historical society or library you can purchase a commercial book scanner for around a hundred thousand dollars or make the DIY prototype version from Google books using a vacuum cleaner, a scanner, and other components totalling around $1500.

While this definitely isn't a project for everyone, it would be a great way for a local makerspace to build social capital with libraries and other institutions by making the scanner available for preserving important local and historical 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
http://lifehacker.com/5962816/build-googles-linear-book-scanner-prototype?tag=ebooks
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