medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]>
> Google Book's scanning procedures seem to be having many teething problems.
masterfully understated, Paul.
> I just looked at parts of their "full view" text of Setton's Papacy and the
Levant. If, for example, you look through a dozen pages or so from p. 232, you
can see some of the issues which make the text much less than a reliable
digital copy of the original:
>
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0871691140&id=i4OPORrVeXQC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA237&dq=intitle:papacy+intitle:and+intitle:the+intitle:levant+inauthor:setton&as_brr=1&sig=PdM-XHnRXSMwb9jz8CTYtu0aVGs
> Pages are partly cut off (232, 237, 243), or not available (235, 239),
yes, as is 241:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0871691140&id=i4OPORrVeXQC&pg=PA241&lpg=PA241&dq=intitle:papacy+intitle:and+intitle:the+intitle:levant+inauthor:setton&as_brr=1&sig=1Kp4aYCjeZx3FGvDuWNJIOSKesY
>or blurred by page motion during scanning (242). For some reason colour
varies from back-on-white to black-on-pink,
this is very curious, and i can't imagine why it happens.
>though this is less important.
yes, "petite bier", as the French would say.
> Obviously the project has crucial quality control issues.
Understatement, again.
"Conceived by Geniuses, to be implimented by Morons"
or, at least: In need of Adult Supervision before the Lunch Break.
but, like with the Gallica site, *everything* is there, "en principe".
>There is talk of libraries de-accessioning little-used books, or those
requiring rebinding or conservation, in favour of the Google digital versions.
As Christopher notes, this would often be a bad idea; indeed, it could prove
disastrous to scholarship.
well, Christopher is really of the opinion that what is proving most "amaging
to Scholarship" is the more Commprehensive Decline of Western Civilisation as
we Know It.
that, and Brain Worms.
having bitched about that quite enough, i was very pleased to find a large
number of hits when i searched for "Chateaudun" in the "Full view Books".
somewhere in there, somehow, i was able to find the 18506 publication of the
1762 history of the town/county by l'abbe Bordas.
however, it took some different sorts of searching in order to turn it up
again this morning:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=0zfXdtMyNHtGVYYx_RBQ3q7&id=8fkJAAAAIAAJ&dq=bordas+lancelot
on Saturday i had managed to copy the 20 pages or so i wanted into a .pdf
file, using the mouse right click / "Convert to PDF" to first make a file,
then, moving to the next page, doing a "Convert to existing PDF" --and
continuing this for every page i wished to copy.
tedious as hell, but seemed to work, and much faster than waiting for the
reprint edition, or even interlibrary loan.
when i got home (where i do not have access to The Innernets) i started
reading the file and discovered that, while each page was indeed there, en
principe, there was a line of .html in the middle of each page where some text
was lost.
most distressing --but not a fatal flaw, since i could always go back on line
to retrieve the missing secitons.
Perversely, when i now try that same trick to save some pages, they are saved
as complete, with no loss of text.
go figger.
these irritants aside, the number of really quite obscure titles which i've
found is quite astonishing --de Lepinois' Histoire de Chartres, Guerard's
Cartulaire de Saint Pere de Chartres, this Bordas....
i have no idea why *these* particular titles are even on the site (only i and
a half dozen other folks on the planet even know they exist), but they make me
feel that, once the Bugs are worked out, this will be a reasonably amazing
resource.
c
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|