Would you go home and quicky-print the pictures (like on a laserjet) and
then scan them in?  Might work.

Jan

The idea has been discussed before.

A 4 megapixel digital camera mounted on a stand to look down on the page
will work. A 4 megapixel image will make a 200 DPI equivalent of a scanner
image. The image size of a 4 megapixel camera is about 2288 x 1712 pixels,
which when printed 8.5 X 11 inches is about 200dpi. If you want higher
resolution in the final image you use a higher resolution camera.
Of course, when viewed on a computer screen the image is huge.

A copy stand with lighting is what is needed.

Here is one at a reasonable price with lights.
http://www.adorama.com/CECS1L.html?searchinfo=copy%20stand&item_no=20

Same stand without lights.
http://www.adorama.com/CECS1.html?searchinfo=copy%20stand&item_no=29

List of copy stands.
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?page=searchresults&searchinfo=copy%20stand

However you must ask the librarian if you can bring in your own equipment.

It's not a silly idea at all, it works quite well.  I have photographed the
phone book, sharp corner to corner, with three megapixels, and copied
magazine articles this way.  Very fast and the end result, after some
fiddline in Photoshop, is better quality than a copier..

Depending on the quality needed, you may do this hand-held, with a tripod or
other camera fixture, or with lighting for a really professional job

If the images are destined for OCR, I would be leery of the dimensional
stability being good enough for applications such as OCR.