Is it really necessary to fully transcribe the Mining Journals
content?  Unless it was faithfully recreated in something like Adobe
Acrobat the original 'feel' of the journal would be lost - we sanitize
enough of our history these days as it is!  Surely a straight forward
facsimile scan (in .tif format) would be much more cost effective , at
probably less than 25p per page, (can you confirm this Tony B.?)
nevertheless, the cost of the exercise would still run to tens of
thousands just to get the info into digital form.  I accept that the
searchable nature of true text would then be lost but at least it's in
your hand to read and various index's have been created by determined
enthusiasts over the years which make a good starting point for further
research.
  
  Although of perhaps limited interest to many on this list(?) I assume
that the CD Tony B. refers to is available direct from the MJ?  I'd
also be interested to know at what cost??
  
  The original issue however still exists; should we preserve and make
the hardware of mining history more accessible to many or make the
documentation accessible to the few who have an interest in it?!!  As
stated by others there are many examples of the former but few of the
latter - the recent discussions about the PRO being a rarity.  I for one
would be prepared to contribute financially to the scanning in of
currently awkward & expensive to obtain information such as the M.J. and
even 25" OS maps because it would save me vast amounts of time (and
cash) in the longer term!!

Mike Munro

Tony.Brewis wrote:
> 
> Re the excellent idea of putting Mining Journal onto CD --
> 
> The full text of Mining Journal, Mining Magazine and Mining Annual Review
> has been available on CD since 1981 -- I have in front of me my CD
> containing all texts of the three publications from 1981 to 1998 inclusive.
>  It is certainly handy for looking up any reference within that time scale.
> 
> Although nowadays the transcription onto CD is doubtless done by transfer
> of the same word-processing software that goes to the printer, this was not
> always the case.
> 
> In the early years (i.e. from 1981) the texts of the three publications
> were made available on Nexus, a U.S.-based information service.  The
> mechanics of getting the texts onto the Nexus database involved sending
> printed copies of the Journal to the owners of Nexus, who then sent them on
> to a transcription agency in Taiwan. The texts were typed in by Taiwanese
> girls who could not read English. This was done for two reasons:
> 
> (1) It was cheaper than employing American typists
> 
> (2) As the Taiwanese girls could not understand a word of what they were
> typing, they did it letter by letter, and made virtually no typographical
> errors in the transcription.
> 
> [As their computers were not equipped with English-language spell-checkers,
> they avoided problems like the one we once had on Mining Magazine, where,
> in describing the ore deposit at Rammelsberg, a colleague wrote that one
> series of rocks lay "unconformably" on underlying strata, and the printer's
> spellchecker changed this to "uncomfortably", which is what appeared in the
> published version].
> 
> I mention this because, if transcription of copies of Mining Journal of
> historical interest onto CD is contemplated, it would almost certainly be
> more cost-effective to have it done outside the U.K.
> 
> Sounding a small word of caution, I remember a paper being presented by
> Marylin Palmer of AIA, in which, talking about a lead mine in Wales, she
> said that Mining Journal had carried frequent reports from the manager of
> the mine describing progress in setting up the plant. This involved,
> amongst other things, the installation of a ropeway from mine portal to the
> dressing plant, even to the point of commissioning it and setting it
> running. If you go to the site, said Marylin, you can see that no such
> ropeway was ever installed -- the manager's reports were purely for the
> purpose of boosting the share price in London.
> 
> Tony Brewis

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Michael P. Munro

64 Bron Awelon, Garden Suburb, Barry,
South Glamorgan, Wales, UK  CF62 6PS.
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