MAKING THE ELECTRONIC NUMISMATIST Öffentlichkeit Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 51, December 19, 2004, Article 5
MAKING THE ELECTRONIC NUMISMATIST
Regarding Jorg Lueke's "The Electronic Numismatist,"
Michael E. Marotta writes:"Bringing these classic volumes to collectors is a great
service to the hobby. In Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451",
the fireman, Montag, explains his fascination with books:
"Inside each one is a man." To read the words of Dr.
George Heath is to share with him the creation of the ANA.
Even more, these old magazines reveal the world of
collecting in the early days of our hobby. Of course,
being able to search text is an incomparable joy. The
range and breadth of Heath's interests illuminate many
aspects of collecting, and serve as a benchmark for the
most modern research. Jorg deserves the highest praise
for this effort.In an email to me, Jorg said that the few glitches will
be fixed in Rev 1.02. Blank pages fill some spaces, for
instance. Jorg attributes these to "the relationship
between the index, bookmarks, and links. Once all that
is created they keep the document page numbers correct
whenever the document is edited. It will take me probably
till this weekend to create version 1.02 with consistent
titleing, no blanks, and a new index."In real life Jorg is an IBM mainframe programmer. He was
able to draw on standard project management skills when
creating "The Electronic Numismatist." He said, "I hired
someone to do the inital scanning and basic editing. They
could scan some things but not everything due to the type
style and weakness [of the printing], so they did hand
key 40-50% of the text. I then did the next few rounds of
editing, formatting, indexing etc. ... the cost benefit
of my time versus money pointed towards spending the money
for that portion." Best of all, from the bibliophile's
perspective, Jorg worked to keep the original formating
of Dr. Heath's 19th century typography.No doubt, each of us will find our own rewards in owning
this. The work is loaded with gems. At first, Dr. Heath
accepted no advertising. Then he relented. "Thanks to
the liberality of our advertisers," Heath wrote, "... we
can see our way reasonably clear to continue THE NUMISMATIST
at the old subscription price of FIFTY CENTS a year (outside
the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, two shillings six pence)."- 2004-12-19
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