kentuckiense
Debaser
As a grad student, I spend a considerable amount of time browsing past issues of scientific journals relevant to my research. These days, it's an absolute necessity for scientific journals to have digitized articles coupled with a digital subscription service.
While the AOS and OD magazines aren't technically scientific journals, they clearly offer plenty of technical and historical information. Unfortunately, for relative newcomers like me, old issues are pretty much inaccessible. Sure, I could try to buy up sets of back issues, but it can be expensive and difficult. I've had friends scan old articles for me, but again, I don't like consuming too much of their time and I'm not quite sure which side of the law such a practice is on.
Case in point. I would LOVE to be able to read all of Jack Fowlie's old orchid adventure articles from Orchid Digest, but I have no idea which articles appeared in what issues. And, obviously, once I figure out what issues to get, I actually have to find them for sale.
So, I'd like some input into the pros and cons of AOS and/or OD digitizing back issues and making them available to subscribers (for an additional fee?). I subscribe to neither, and this is one of the reasons holding me back. If I had electronic access to back issues, I would pay double the subscription fee for both.
Obviously, such a project would take time and money, the amount of which could vary depending on the how the job is approached. At the most basic level, volunteers or an intern could scan articles. Increasing the complexity (but not by much) would be to add a search/sorting function.
Anyway, this is just a little idea I had. I don't want all of that valuable orchid knowledge being lost once those old issues are lost, deteriorate, etc. Thoughts?
While the AOS and OD magazines aren't technically scientific journals, they clearly offer plenty of technical and historical information. Unfortunately, for relative newcomers like me, old issues are pretty much inaccessible. Sure, I could try to buy up sets of back issues, but it can be expensive and difficult. I've had friends scan old articles for me, but again, I don't like consuming too much of their time and I'm not quite sure which side of the law such a practice is on.
Case in point. I would LOVE to be able to read all of Jack Fowlie's old orchid adventure articles from Orchid Digest, but I have no idea which articles appeared in what issues. And, obviously, once I figure out what issues to get, I actually have to find them for sale.
So, I'd like some input into the pros and cons of AOS and/or OD digitizing back issues and making them available to subscribers (for an additional fee?). I subscribe to neither, and this is one of the reasons holding me back. If I had electronic access to back issues, I would pay double the subscription fee for both.
Obviously, such a project would take time and money, the amount of which could vary depending on the how the job is approached. At the most basic level, volunteers or an intern could scan articles. Increasing the complexity (but not by much) would be to add a search/sorting function.
Anyway, this is just a little idea I had. I don't want all of that valuable orchid knowledge being lost once those old issues are lost, deteriorate, etc. Thoughts?