Re: public lending right
On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:19:52 +0000, Chris Lale
<ctlale@coolscience.co.uk> wrote:
>Here are some results and ideas from my initial research:
>
>1. Basic Debian documentation
>a. The installation manual 'Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 for Intel
>x86' is available in pdf format. 124 pages of A4 80gsm single-sided
>comes to 1.3cm (0.5") thick.
>
>b. The post-install guide 'Debian Reference' is also available in pdf
>format. 199 pages of A4 80gsm single-sided comes to 2.1cm (0.8") thick.
>
>c. These two together weigh in at 3.4cm (1.3"). Even with a duplex laser
>printer or photocopier this documentation alone would be nearly 2cm
>(3/4") thick.
>
>i. Bindings with a glue-based spine would be unsuitable.
>
>ii. Plastic tube with tangs that pass through slots in the paper might
>be feasible, but the spine is difficult to label.
>
>iii. A slim ring binder (with 4 rings) might work, but librarians don't
>like them because pages go missing. A ring binder might make CD storage
>simpler though.
1a,b,c: I don't think the thickness is too much of a problem. 3/4" is
thin for a novel, let alone a computer book. Compare "Teach yourself
foo in 21 days" series.
i: I agree glued spines are crap, but they are ubiquitous, and they're
not too bad with A4-sized pages.
ii: Great, and the spine is only difficult to label if the material it
is made of is black. Common mistake when binding these: trying to use
a spine which is too small for the number of pages, which results in
the tangs pinging free of the spine and the back pages falling out.
iii: Ring binders are awkward to stack on shelves and they tend to
explode when you drop them, resulting in chaos; I'm not surprised
librarians don't like them.
CD storage: A4-size card separators with plastic CD wallets pasted to
them, just inside the front cover which has "This book contains x CDs"
in big letters; straightforward and easy for the librarian to check on
return.
Style: Maybe a bit personal, but the most comprehensibly styled
computer books I've ever seen were the manuals for Borland Turbo C
1.0. Maybe not so personal - the company I was working for at the time
copied this style for its own internal computer documentation.
Pigeon
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