Having worked extensively and in great depth with the Acta, it seems to me
that to make it work as a CD, they must have entered the text manually; the
print is often poor, and I can't imagine a scanner making much of it. If
that guess is right, how much do you suppose C-H paid in wages to the
people who typed the thing? 69 quarto volumes of very small print?
On the other hand, I have electronically scanned and edited text - and it
can likewise be devilishly time consuming to go back, proofread, correct.
So my question is, how did they do all that work and get away with the low
price of $45,000?!!
Patrick Nugent
>-----Original Message-----
>From: George Valsamis <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: 15 November 1998 11:12
>Subject: Re: New databases
>
>
>>
>>Chadwyck-Healey make me angry with those prices
>
>
>But to be fair they probably did it all twice, with humans: and they have to
>run their office off the profits too. Would they really sell 100 times as
>many copies if they charged $450 a copy? The irony is that they might sell
>more: at $450 we would happily buy the Acta (we call that about 250GPB). Are
>there 99 others like us? (I hasten to add, in this respect)
>
>We paid 90GBP for the Acta (or at any rate as many volumes as had then
>appeared) in January 1859: perhaps someone has an economics colleague who
>can turn 90GBP (1859) into US$ (1998). On the basis of our school fees, I
>estimate about $27,000.
>
>So maybe George has a point!
>
>Anselm Cramer OSB
>Ampleforth Abbey, York
>[log in to unmask]
__________________________________
Patrick J. Nugent
Department of Religion
Earlham College
Richmond, Indiana 47374 USA
(765) 983-1413
[log in to unmask]
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