The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 51, December 19, 2004, Article 5

MAKING THE ELECTRONIC NUMISMATIST

  Regarding Jorg Lueke's "The Electronic Numismatist,"
  Michael E. Marotta writes:

  "Bringing these classic volumes to collectors is a great 
  service to the hobby.  In Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451",
  the fireman, Montag, explains his fascination with books: 
  "Inside each one is a man."  To read the words of Dr. 
  George Heath is to share with him the creation of the ANA. 
  Even more, these old magazines reveal the world of 
  collecting in the early days of our hobby. Of course, 
  being able to search text is an incomparable joy.  The
  range and breadth of Heath's interests illuminate many 
  aspects of collecting, and serve as a benchmark for the 
  most modern research.  Jorg deserves the highest praise 
  for this effort.  

  In an email to me, Jorg said that the few glitches will
  be fixed in Rev 1.02.  Blank pages fill some spaces, for
  instance. Jorg attributes these to "the relationship 
  between the index, bookmarks, and links.  Once all that 
  is created they keep the document page numbers correct 
  whenever the document is edited.  It will take me probably
  till this weekend to create version 1.02 with consistent
  titleing, no blanks, and a new index."

  In real life Jorg is an IBM mainframe programmer.  He was
  able to draw on standard project management skills when
  creating "The Electronic Numismatist." He said, "I hired 
  someone to do the inital scanning and basic editing. They 
  could scan some things but not everything due to the type
  style and weakness [of the printing], so they did hand 
  key 40-50% of the text.  I then did the next few rounds of
  editing, formatting, indexing etc. ...  the cost benefit 
  of my time versus money pointed towards spending the money
  for that portion."  Best of all, from the bibliophile's 
  perspective, Jorg worked to keep the original formating 
  of Dr. Heath's 19th century typography.

  No doubt, each of us will find our own rewards in owning
  this.  The work is loaded with gems.  At first, Dr. Heath
  accepted no advertising.  Then he relented.  "Thanks to 
  the liberality of our advertisers," Heath wrote, "... we
  can see our way reasonably clear to continue THE NUMISMATIST
  at the old subscription price of FIFTY CENTS a year (outside
  the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, two shillings six pence)."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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