In a message dated 04/07/2000 8:18:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> One wouldn't use a
> > CDROM
> > version of the King James Bible if what one needed to find was in one
> > of the
> > apocryphal books.
>
> One might, since that version does contain those books.
>
> Oriens.
I know it did originally. But I believe they were removed at some point. My
$29 KJV CDROM doesn't have them.
It's OK guys, that $29 version. I don't do Biblical research. Just need to
find the source of a quotation once in a while, and this is a lot faster than
flipping through print editions, of which I do have several in the house.
They're for reading, not source-hunting.
I'd like to add a comment on that problem of the preferred edition not being
the edition which is digitally available. CDROMs are for a mass market, and,
as usual, we academics are going to be left out. My KJV is designed
primarily, I would guess from the company's other offerings, for midwestern
Protestants who want to use their computers to study the Bible. The chief
programmer is a Baptist minister; the company runs a charming ad of a
clean-cut young family eagerly huddled at their computer as they
enthusiastically study the Bible together. As the company was asking for
suggestions of other Biblical material, I submitted my pet wish list. (A) the
Vulgate in Latin and English, and (B) the Delft Bible. They aren't going to
do this, because it doesn't interest their market, and the academic market is
too small.
I think we academics have to get involved. I don't think we're going to wean
the CDROM manufacturers away from using public domain versions. But in cases
where one public domain version might be preferable to the others, maybe they
need some guidance. From what I've seen, I don't think they know the
difference. In cases where nothing will really substitute for a preferred
version under copyright, talk to the publisher or rights holder about issuing
a CDROM version. Better yet, send a delegation from your professional
association to make the request--after you've persuaded your professional
association to set up a committee on CDROMS or digital editions. If it's
truly not economically feasible for the publisher to issue a CDROM version
directed at the academic market, this is the gap that grant funding was
designed to fill, and I notice the NEH is supporting the Dartmouth Dante
Database.
Another window of opportunity, because the needed equipment is becoming so
inexpensive, is to produce a CDROM in your own department that contains texts
useful to those in your field. As you might want grant funding to do this, a
good beginning might be to send a questionnaire to others in your field about
what texts they'd find most useful on a CDROM. This will allow you to arrive
at a consensus as to which texts are most widely wanted. Distribution might
reasonably be through your professional assocation, perhaps by subscription,
and calculated to cover costs. If you insist on producing a CDROM which is
not only useful but gorgeous, you might be able to accomplish this if your
university has a computer science department.
If we don't take the collective initiative in our various fields by
distributing the texts we need in digital form, the outcome is fairly
predictable. A giant corporate entity will buy the rights to this material
and create a database to be rented to college and university libraries at a
subscription fee of several thousand dollars. This will close out colleges
that can't afford this expenditure. It will also close out emeritii faculty,
independent scholars, students and faculty who prefer to work at home, and
anyone who for any reason is unable to work on the premises of a subscribing
university. My college, like many, has old computer equipment often in a
state of disrepair, and there isn't enough of it to go around. I have much
better equipment at home, and that's where I'd much rather work. It
infuriates me that to use the databases in the college library, I have to be
physically on the college premises, where I stand in line with lots of other
people waiting for my turn at the few computers available for that purpose.
The database vendors strictly enforce the requirement that their CDROMS can
only be used on the college premises. And they don't have individual
subscriptions.
I guess I'm saying, look what Wheaton College did. If you would have chosen
different texts, or want the Latin, then do your own CDROM in your own
department, with whatever texts you think would be more useful. It's a nice
project for younger faculty and graduate students to work on. Once you've got
it produced, it costs only about a dollar for each additional copy you make.
If you've gotten a good consensus of what texts are really wanted in your
field, your professional association should be delighted to offer it to
members at the time that, say, a call for yearly dues is sent out.
pat sloane
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