I have finished university already some years ago, and am now working in the field of my previous studies. I was always very careful, diligent and organized when it came to collecting and archiving my course notes and course text books.
Well, in the current situation, I have all these notes and books stored at my parents' attic. However, quite often at work, I remember some of the content I studied and think "well, that would be quite useful now to know" or "I did a case study at school that was very similar to my current project - what did we do back in the days?". I can even point to the specific book or course, where the topic was covered. However, I cannot look up anything because they are physically stored somewhere in a geographically remote place.
So I have been asking myself repeatedly: "why don't you digitize your course notes, text books, hand-outs, etc.?"
- Has anyone of you similar issues? How did you handle it?
- Is it even legal to scan full text books for private use? I would store them in my Dropbox and do not intend to share with anyone. Of course, there is always the risk that my account gets hacked and files leaked, but I definitely do not have the intention to share any of these files (also, I do not know how probable this threat scenario is, given that I use two-factor-authentication). It is only and exclusively intended for my private use.
- Is it even feasible to scan dozens of books and folders full of notes and print-outs?
I am really curious to hear your opinions!