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Cindy, Lori, and All,
One thing I have noticed about most Bookshare volunteers is their common sense. In choosing to scan a book, other than one on the wish list, most volunteers would not choose one he or she would consider outdated if there is one more up to date on the topic but much that has information that has been amended is still valuable. All of the Durant books have facts that have been proven erroneous but no one in his/her right mind would consider the books as a whole [each or all] out-dated just for that reason. Marx wrote books based on assumptions which have been proven false [he never imagined the guilds would be replaced by unions or that the proletariat could become the middle class] but that does not eliminate the rest of his thinking or philosophy.
The same is true for "errors" in books we choose to scan or validate. What is an error? Faulkner, like many other writers loved creating his own compound words which drive my Spell Checker crazy. Then there is Tolkien. Who is to say that Elvish words are errors? Many authors are fast and loose with punctuation and others are very deliberate in what might be considered errors. And to add insult to injury, there are publishers who deliberately change books to match their accounting departments or editors who have been known to convince authors to do things which would otherwise be against their original concepts.
One last example. Malcolm Cowley wanted something about the Compson family of The Sound and The Fury for The Portable Faulkner but there was nothing excerpt-able so he asked Faulkner to write something. Faulkner wrote the Appendix to the book but as he had no copy of it available asked Cowley to correct dates and monetary amounts. Fortunately Cowley did not change anything. He left it as a fifth section, the author looking back at the family 15 years later. The only real error was when Signet and Random House both put the Appendix in the front of the later printings of the novel and that proceeded to totally confuse readers. It was better left separate in the Portable or, at most, included as an "appendix" with a note identifying the time difference in the writing thereof. But that was not my decision and Faulkner seemingly [assumeably] agreed to go along with Cowley's [His editor at Random House] decision.
Now how would you correct the error or should we eliminate the "Appendix" because we [I] consider it an error. Then we would miss Faulkner's fifth view of a little girl with dirty panties up a tree and Faulkner's last attempt to tell her story.
Forgive my length but so much has been written here about errors and editions that I felt the topic need clarification. Once we choose to include a work in the Bookshare collection, for whatever reason, it is incumbent upon us to produce as accurate to text a copy as possible. Our names are not on the books as author editors, or publishers.
Amy
omsm
--
It if be now, 'tis not to come,
If it be not to come, it will be now,
If it be now now, Yet it will come.
The readiness is all.
Wm. Shakespeare
-------------- Original message from "Lora" <loravara@xxxxxxxxxxx>: --------------
> Hi, Cindy;,
>
> I think it's too difficult to create any kind of hard and fast rule for
> books with old information. Sometimes, such books might be needed. For
> instance, if I were writing a book on South African history, past to
> present, I might want the perspective of an author who wrote about that
> country in the 1980's, or even earlier.
>
> In other instances, there are sometimes just no good current resources.
> Some of the books on different games and building strategies for playing
> them are more than twenty or thirty years old. And some of the books on
> topics such as playing the piano are classics that have been around for
> decades.
>
> On the other hand, a book on autism written in the 1970's would likely
> contain misleading information, while its more modern counterpart is
> probably what we'd want.
>
> I think that we just have to leave it to common sense.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob
> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 7:43 AM
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Books with outdated information
>
> Cindy You make some very good points. However, if the copyright information
> is available for anyone who cares (either in the book or on the web) then
> the reader can decide whether or not to read the book.
>
> Just my thoughts on the matter, even if my thoughts are a little outdated.
>
> Bob
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Cindy"
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 9:02 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Books with outdated information
>
>
> >I don't know what the bookshare policy is about including nonfiction books
> >that may have outdated information, and I've asked Carrie if she can find
> >out. Libraries, school and public, periodically go through their
> >collections and pull books that haven't circulated for a certain number of
> >years and/or have outdated information because they need the space for
> >newer books. That isn't the case, of course, for an electronic library like
>
> >bookshare, but I seriously question the value of time spent scanning and
> >validating books that may have facts and information that is no longer
> >valid. I bring this up because two books added today to the collection,
> >Move Your Shadow-South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld and
> >Doing Time: A Look at Crime and Prisons by Phyllis Elperin Clark, Robert
> >Lehrman I wonder about. I haven't read them, but looking at their copyright
>
> >dates (and I think maybe that of the former might be incorrect--without
> >looking at the
> > copyright page, the information I've found indicates that the book was
> > copyrighted in 1985, not 1995) my impression is that circumstances in
> > South Africa are quite different now than 10 or 20 years ago, and that
> > there have also been changes in the prison system in the last 20 years.
> >
> > My suggestion would be that submitters and validators consider whether
> > it's worth their time and energy to scan and/or validate books that a
> > print library probably would discard. JMO
> >
> > Cindy
> >
> > ***WISH LIST (CALLED REQUESTED ADDITIONS TO THE BOOKSHARE COLLECTION)IS
> > AVAILABLE AT
> > http://people.delphiforums.com/jamiecalton/Book_Requests.htm
> > http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/
> > http://studentpages.alma.edu/~07jmyate/book_requests.htm
> >
> > A LIST OF BOOKS CURRENTLY BEING SCANNED IS AVAILABLE AT
> > http://people.delphiforums.com/jamiecalton/scanning.html
> > http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/
> >
> > Jake's site for useful links: http://www.jbrownell.com/bkslinks.html
> >
> >
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
> > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list
> > of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> > 4:55 PM
> >
> >
>
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