Book People Archive

Re: Anyone interested in hosting Burton's Unexplored Syria?

Klaus Graf wrote:
> Project Gutenberg is a very bad solution. Let's remember:
> 
> * Nearly all PG texts doesn't have appropriate metadata.
> * There are no edition directives for PG texts.
> * PG is not hosting scans of books but dubious e-texts.

None of these complaints seems to be relevant to what I was trying to do,
though, which was to distribute the book transcription I had in hand via
online book websites.

In this case, the PDF files include the title pages and other front
matter from the print originals.  So unless someone strips that off,
people will be able to tell what edition was used, and derive appropriate
metadata for the book (as indeed I will do on The Online Books Page
when I relist it).  While past Gutenberg editions have often omitted
front matter and other metadata, I don't believe they currently strip it off
if someone submits it as part of a complete text.  (But, as they're one of
the folks I've send PDfs to, I may soon find out whether I'm wrong about
this.  I've also sent the PDFs to others who've asked for it; we'll see who
puts it up in the best and most expeditious manner.)

Gutenberg's selection criteria aren't relevant to me in this case
either.  If they distribute the book I've sent them, I'm happy, and
don't particularly care what else they distribute.  And as an indexer,
I can and do make my own selection of what is worth listing from
Gutenberg on The Online Books Page.  Other indexers are free to do
likewise, as they see fit.

Basically, in this case I'm interested in Gutenberg's distribution
capabilities, which are among the best online, thanks to their
widely replicated network (the many mirror sites), and their
persistence (both organizationally and technologically-- they've
supported persistent identifiers, in the form of etext numbers,
longer than nearly anyone else distributing texts.)

I also like that there's someone I can contact (either the preparer or the
Gutenberg proprietors) if I have a question or a problem with a
text they distribute.  That's one thing I don't get with Wikisource,
which is one reason I haven't made much use of them in my listings.
It's one thing to have no fixed accountability for a short article
on some topic with lots of links and corroborating information that
may be available online; it's another to have no fixed accountability
for a text whose provenance I can't evaluate, when there are no other
online versions I can check against.

Project Gutenberg has also inspired a number of other efforts to put texts 
online, some with higher production standards than Gutenberg has traditionally
had.  Some of these projects are feeding into Gutenberg for distribution;
others are distributing independently.  Either way, I'm grateful to their
efforts, and for Gutenberg for helping inspire them.  (Indeed, the preparer
of the Burton text told me when he sent the files that he had been inspired
to do his transcription of _Unexplored Syria_ from what PG was doing.)
If any of thsse folks let me know about what books they've put online
and where, I'll try to check then out as time (and my rather nasty present
backlog) permits.

Thanks!

John Mark Ockerbloom
Editor, The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/