We have grown accustomed to being able to download journal articles and books. It is now routine for publishing houses to place many years of journal issues on their internet sites for easy (but often pay-as-you-go) access. In a prior editorial 5 years ago, the process of going ‘paperless’ was discussed in detail 1. However, one topic was not discussed: the conversion of books in your professional library into PDF format. Technology has advanced so that this is now feasible. Advantages are quite palpable and include the ability to search within and across all your books, the convenience of accessing everything anywhere you have your computer (or iPad), and the elimination of lugging around boxes of books when you move or change jobs, not to mention freeing up many feet of shelf space. Most of the medical texts we own will have little or no monetary value when we leave this Earth – no sense in saddling our heirs with more stuff to throw out. Before feeding hundreds of book pages into a sheet-fed scanner (at speeds of 25–40 pages a minute, both sides imaged simultaneously), you will need to liberate the book from its binding. Inexpensive book guillotines are available for this purpose (Figure 1). For hardcover books, it is recommended you tear the covers off first. The book guillotine will quickly remove the spine of the book in one smooth motion, leaving a stack of paper ready to be scanned. If you desire, you can scan the front of the hardcover on a flatbed scanner later. Sheet-fed scanners are commonly available and made by a variety of manufacturers. Basic models allow for 50 sheets to be placed in the hopper, ready to be scanned. Recommended are models that can ultrasonically detect multi-feeds so you can be assured you won't be missing any pages. A higher-end model is illustrated in Figure 2. A short video-clip of it in operation can be found at http://youtu.be/4-TJ0TWZHbk. Software programs such as Adobe Acrobat should be used to ‘OCR’ your newly created PDF file. ‘OCR’ is Optical Character Recognition and is a necessary process in order for you to be able to search through text at a future date. The characters and words themselves are placed in an invisible layer below the image that you see, preserving the ‘look’ of the typeset page. A quality check is advisable to make sure that all the pages have been scanned to your satisfaction. Once this is done, you are ready to name the file appropriately and store it. It is reasonable to include in the file name the title of the book, the author, publisher and year. Backing up your library is essential and the advice provided earlier 1 still applies, although external hard drives are now even less expensive, have greater storage capacities, and some will communicate by WiFi with your computer or tablet. Directories can be named by subject matter and books placed in the appropriate directory. Programs are available that will display the files by the first page of the PDF file, resembling a physical shelf (Figure 3). With the spine of the book removed, the only logical place for the scanned sheets is the recycling bin. Hard covers and spines, however, are not recyclable because of the glue. Many of us have paperback books printed on cheap paper whose bindings are in sorry shape. Scanning these books is probably the best way to preserve them. Because the paper can be very brittle, care must be taken using the book guillotine. The scanner rollers and glass will also need to be more frequently cleaned because of the ink and dust from the deteriorating paper. Digitization of legacy resources such as books enhances our ability to make use of them. Although some time and effort are required to do this on our own, it is now a relatively inexpensive and simple process. An illustrated example can be found in the Appendix S1. In the past 36 months, Leslie Citrome has engaged in collaborative research with, or received consulting or speaking fees, from Alexza, Alkermes, AstraZeneca, Avanir, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Envivo, Forest, Genentech, Janssen, Lundbeck, Merck, Mylan, Novartis, Noven, Otsuka, Pfizer, Reckitt Benckiser, Shire, Sunovion, Takeda, and Valeant. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.