009 News in PDF format

[JulienW]

<snipped>
Since I started this thread, I discovered that the Society put out a series of CDs containing the newsletters from the Society's creation up to April of 2003. Through the graciousness of a former newsletter editor, I was able to obtain those files. I have converted them all to pdf format. In addition, a friend of mine, here in the States, has been loaning me his back issues to scan and convert. Within the next month, I hope to have converted the issues from May 2003 up to when the Society began providing pdf copies for overseas members. At that time, I would like to make them available to the Society. My question is, what process is needed to take place for this to happen.

One caveat - I cannot seem to condense the pdf files to the size that is currently being provided. If whoever is converting the current newsletters to pdf files could let me know how he is doing it, it would be appreciated.

Jeff Schumaker
member 7055

I remember the Society producing indexes for 009 news at various times but I don't recall a set of 009 news being made available in electronic format (continuous membership since circa 1980) so you appear to have a very useful and rare resource, particularly as you have kept this up to date by adding to it.

In order to make this resource available to members (and many thanks from this member for your offer) you will need to let the Committee/Board know, so I would drop the Secretary an e-mail on the subject to inform him (and the rest of the committee) formally that such a resource exists and that you are prepared to make it available. It might also be useful to do that sooner rather than later as at least one member has e-mailed the Secretary on this subject, and as I mentioned before the more members express their views to the Committee them more credance can be given to the issue at hand.

To add to john Dennis' post the Society also uses InDesign for producing the news - or at least it did because I was Secretary when we adopted the system & bought the software!  Assuming that we are still using that system then the method will be as outlined by John Dennis (who seems to understand it much better than I ever did!), but a quick e-mail to the Editor should provide a definitive answer.

[MickT]

I said in my long tome that I wouldn't get involved in debate about this, but I can offer a couple of snippets now that the subject has stabilised (I think) into the matter of electronic copies of old issues of 009 News.

To answer Julien's comment  "I remember the Society producing indexes for 009 news at various times but I don't recall a set of 009 news being made available in electronic format "

I don't think "the Society" have ever produced indexes. This has been done a couple of times by volunteer members "unofficially" - one produced a few years ago by William Loyd comes to mind. I can remember reading of several others either proposed or actual over the years. I'm sure that during my own brief tenure as Sec that a copy of an index was handed over with the rest of the Secretarial files so something albeit 10 or so years out of date does exist, somewhere, and if a willing volunteer stepped forward to update it, no doubt the offer would be enthusiastically taken up

E-copies of the News. David Camis did a complete set of scans of all the early issues some years ago and advertised their availability through 009 News, I am not sure up to which date. These were on CDs but were done using the only technology available to him, which was to scan them as .jpg pages - ie 16 .jpg images per 16 page issue.

When Simon Coward became chaiirman, he called all these in and cancelled the service that David was providing as he felt that the technology used was cumbersome and out of date. He intended to either produce or get produced all of these volumes as pdf docs plus carry it forward with all newer issues to keep up to date. Sadly this project never even got started and the result is that apparently the good work that David started has disappeared as I asked the committee frequently for a few years what was happening and nobody seemed to know the answer to the question.

Like Garry and Julien I do have a complete set and have always been prepared to help anyone who asks, with jpg scans of specific articles if I can be provided with the details. It is a pity that nobody ever followed the project through to get a complete scanned pdf archive of 009 News but it didn

[B.Meldon]

Following Garry

[Jeff Schumaker]

In order to make this resource available to members (and many thanks from this member for your offer) you will need to let the Committee/Board know, so I would drop the Secretary an e-mail on the subject to inform him (and the rest of the committee) formally that such a resource exists and that you are prepared to make it available. It might also be useful to do that sooner rather than later as at least one member has e-mailed the Secretary on this subject, and as I mentioned before the more members express their views to the Committee them more credance can be given to the issue at hand.

To add to john Dennis' post the Society also uses InDesign for producing the news - or at least it did because I was Secretary when we adopted the system & bought the software!  Assuming that we are still using that system then the method will be as outlined by John Dennis (who seems to understand it much better than I ever did!), but a quick e-mail to the Editor should provide a definitive answer.

Thanks, Julien, for the information. I will contact the Secretary.

Jeff S.

[Jeff Schumaker]

In regards to an index to 009 News issues, there was one included with the scans of the early issues I received. It is in EXCEL format, and appears to have been added to, at one time. The first 1934 entries are ordered by year, with the remaining entries ordered by author or supplier. The subject matter is given in a 2 or 3 letter code, some easily decipherable, some not. If anyone wants to work on this file, and add to it, I will attempt to email it to them.

Jeff S.

[Scottish Modeller]

In regards to an index to 009 News issues, there was one included with the scans of the early issues I received. It is in EXCEL format, and appears to have been added to, at one time. The first 1934 entries are ordered by year, with the remaining entries ordered by author or supplier. The subject matter is given in a 2 or 3 letter code, some easily decipherable, some not. If anyone wants to work on this file, and add to it, I will attempt to email it to them.

Jeff S.

Hi Jeff,

As the index is in excel format - you will be able to make it available by adding it as an attachment to a posting.

That would, in one go, make it available to anyone who is willing/able to add more issues to it.

There is a possible downside as this would create individual versions with whatever additions were being contributed.

This makes it difficult to control and keep, one master version.

Don't ask how I know - it's a tale that is long in the telling!

Having a shared 'whiteboard' is one idea of how this sort of communal task can be done - but not everyone is happy using them.

So - I have a suggestion that I have used successfully in the past which may help....

One Master File - Jeff's file which only he should edit.

Then for anyone who is willing and able to add to the index - Individual files which you can post onto Jeff's thread.

hoever - this needs a bit of organising beforehand.

If you are willing and able to do this - post on the thread First - say which issues you are doing.

That then helps control the additions to Jeff's Master File.

What next?

Everyone should use the master as a template and Jeff add any new information to it.

So - create your index and once done - post it on the thread where it can be picked up and added to the Master File.

If you have several issues of The News and are indexing more than one - use a fresh file for each issue.

This helps make it clear what has been done already.

remember - Everyone make mistakes!

If you have and don't discover it until after you have uploaded yout file - don't panic.

Just add a posting showing what is incorrect and what the correction needs to be.

Ok - that's me with my possible way of doing it.

Others may have different ideas though.

Thanks

[duttonbay]

E-copies of the News. David Camis did a complete set of scans of all the early issues some years ago and advertised their availability through 009 News, I am not sure up to which date. These were on CDs but were done using the only technology available to him, which was to scan them as .jpg pages - ie 16 .jpg images per 16 page issue.

When Simon Coward became chaiirman, he called all these in and cancelled the service that David was providing as he felt that the technology used was cumbersome and out of date. He intended to either produce or get produced all of these volumes as pdf docs plus carry it forward with all newer issues to keep up to date. Sadly this project never even got started and the result is that apparently the good work that David started has disappeared as I asked the committee frequently for a few years what was happening and nobody seemed to know the answer to the question.

This is a pity. Adobe Acrobat can create a PDF from a JPG, and do text recognition.

[Graeme Dunbar]

An index is a fine idea, but a huge amount of work to do well and could be a thankless task. With electronic copies (such as pdf) of documents being searchable using free text searches, an index might be overtaken by technology. A limitation of both approaches is that they search for specific words, not meaning.

Another approach is for individuals to use the archive as a research tool to gather information on specific themes and create new work such as summaries, abstracts and so on. (Also "review" as in unbiased subject review, not a critical review.) Researchers could concentrate on areas that are of interest to them and of which they are knowledgeable or gain knowledge.

Either approach relies on the primary source material being accessible. If access is limited or restricted, an advantage of the second approach is that the information in a summary may be all that a searcher needs and doesn't need to see the original. If greater depth is needed, then the reader can search out the original. With the first approach there is the danger that great effort may be needed to obtain a copy of the original article only to find that doesn't contain much that was not already known about the subject by the reader.

[clayliner]

FWIW, I produced an index of the News for each of the past few years, which was 'advertised' in the magazine, but I have only ever had one request for it from a member. So I probably won't bother to put in the work for future volumes... though there is something rather satisfying in knowing there is an index should one ever want to look something up.

David.

[JulienW]

I attended the AGM on Saturday and on the agenda for the meeting (item 9) was "009 News back issues PDFs".  There was not a huge ammount of discussion on the subject iirc but there was a section in Steve Fulljames' written report as Communications Officer that I will quote (with Charlie Insley's permission):

"Thanks to David Camis we have a full archive of the 009 News on hand in electronic format and will consider the best way to make this available to our membership."

Unfortunately Steve was not able to attend the AGM to answer any questions on the subject, so if anyone has any suggestions as to how the PDF archive could be made available to the members and/or may be able to assist in doing so then I would strongly suggest that they get in touch with Steve (contact details in 009 News) and discuss the matter with Steve directly.

I know that I will be doing so...