Short answers, pulled from the story.
Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 when Michael Hart typed the Declaration of Independence into a mainframe computer. The digital library now contains over 70,000 free eBooks.
The National Archives of Australia recommends 400 pixels per inch for bound books. This standard ensures fine details are captured during the digitization process.
Google patent 7508978 uses infrared camera technology to detect the three-dimensional shape of a page. This allows the machine to automatically adjust the image to correct for curvature.
Organizations often outsource book scanning to low-cost sources in India or China. Some projects also scan materials in-house using commercial book scanners.
The Collaborative Digitization Project in Colorado and NC ECHO in North Carolina digitize cultural heritage materials in the United States. The Nanakshahi trust digitizes manuscripts of Gurmukhī script in South Asia.