book scanning (was: DEC Direct Sales Catalog)

[Jim Battle]

Dave Caroline wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 3:40 PM, Jim Battle <frustum at pacbell.net> wrote:
>> You have to break an egg to make an omelet.
> only for omletes
> not for books, some do have a value in complete condition

I agree certain documents should not be destroyed; I have scanned some 
books one page at a time myself.  However, that doesn't usually apply -- 
most manuals aren't *that* rare.  Scanning the book and making it 
available also has value, and often more than the value of the complete, 
intact book.

Personally I'm much less worried about the loss of value than I am about 
copyright issues.  There are things I have scanned which I haven't put 
online.  I could certainly work harder to acquire permission to post 
what I do.  90% of my scanning doesn't have such approval, although I'm 
fairly comfortable that the copyright holder isn't concerned.

(How do I know the latter?  I've been contacted by some of the 
principals of Processor Technology who said: "nice work", but I don't 
have a piece of paper with a lawyers signature on it.  Getronics bought 
up Wang a decade ago, and while they haven't given me any legal 
document, the fact that they shipped me a pallet of documents, floppies, 
and equipment for the cost of shipping after seeing my website should 
count for something.)

> I have the catalogue online and respond to reques
> the correct data entry of the catalogue takes a long time and should
> predate mass scanning
> I love the online stuff I want more

Dave, not to be snippy, but I am not sure where the punctuation goes 
above.  Let me guess.

 > I have the catalogue online and respond to requests.
 > The correct data entry of the catalogue takes a long time and should
 > predate mass scanning.
 > I love the online stuff.  I want more.

Did I get it right?

Why should the catalog predate the scanning?  It isn't obvious to me. 
At what point do you decide your catalog is done and start scanning then?

Personally, I scan when I have something to scan and I have the time. 
If I waited for the "right" time nothing would ever be scanned.

Some of my docs:

	http://www.sol20.org/manuals.html
	http://www.sol20.org/articles.html
	http://www.wang2200.org/docs.html
	http://www.thebattles.net/bondwell/bondwell.html
	http://www.thebattles.net/sage/sage.html
	http://www.thebattles.net/oddments/oddments.html
	http://www.thebattles.net/wang/3300.html

I have a couple more sites with corresponding documents, but they aren't 
online yet.