The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 38, September 22, 2002, Article 15

ELECTRONIC VS. PRINT CATALOGS

  Darryl Atchison writes this response to David Davis'
  comments regarding the desirability of printed matter
  over CD's:

  "Firstly, I would definitely be in the same camp as Mr. Davis
  in that I too prefer the printed form to a CD.  However, a
  few practical realities must also be considered.  These are
  namely space, expense and functionality.  These should all
  be self-explanatory but I will review them none-the-less,
  using our own bibliography of Canadian Numismatics as
  a reference point.

  We anticipate that our bibliography when finished will be
  approximately 1000 printed pages long.  This means about
  five-six inches of shelf space.  A disc takes up only a few
  millimeters of space to store - even in a case.

  A decent-quality printed version of our text will cost
  somewhere between $100-$150 approximately and a CD
  version will cost considerably less (perhaps as little as $20),
  thereby making the information available to a wider target
  audience - who may not be able to afford the print version.

  While I prefer print versions of a book as I enjoy being able
  to sit down comfortably and flip pages at my leisure, I have
  found that for pure research an electronic version of a
  document is actually preferable.   This enables me to do
  searches for common words or "strings" that may reveal the
  specific or related information that I am looking for.  Even
  working with a brilliant index is not as easy as performing an
  electronic search.   Plus you have the added advantage of
  not having to flip back and forth between a book's content
  and its index thereby saving the book's spine from this
  workout.

  Given that there are always going to be people who will
  prefer a printed form of any book, we have made a
  decision to publish our text once it is finished in both a
  limited-edition print version and in a CD version. Perhaps
  this is the first time a numismatic book will have been
  released in such a manner but we are confident that both
  camps will be reconciled with the results.  Our intention
  is to publish in the summer of 2003."

  [Comments by Dick Johnson and others have convinced
   me that a human-compiled index can be superior in many
   ways to a text search, but having a text search is extremely
   useful even where a decent table of contents and index
   exist.

   See julaine.ca/canbiblio/background.html
   for more information on the Canadian project.
   It would not be the first numismatic publication offered
   in both print and electronic form, since a number of
   catalogs have been produced that way.  Some "books"
   have been issued in electronic-only form.  But I'm not
   sure if this would be the first BOOK issued in BOTH
   forms.  If we covered this in earlier E-Sylums, I haven't
   been able to find it (with a text search....)   One related
   item was published in the September 9, 2001 issue
   (v4n37) -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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