CD-ROMs revisited

[Anonymous]

Last March there were a couple of threads about publishing back issues of MR on CD-ROMs. The gist of those discussions is that there was some appettite for the product but that MR doubts that it could be done profitably.

I have a new idea. What about making all of the out of publication Kalmbach books available on CD-ROM? Books such as Bill McClannahan's treatise on scenery, or building structures and bridges? The older publications would not compete with the Kalmbach books currently in production.

What does everyone think?

[douginut]

YES! (he shouted with great enthusiasm)
a great idea!
doubt it will happen but am for it.

Doug, in Utah

[rogerhensley]

I like it. That could be a much easier project than putting a magazine on CD.

Roger

[CNJ831]

While one the surface this may appear as a good concept, one would have to pursue such a project with a great deal of caution and perhaps significant re-writing. Many articles/books written even in the recent past contain references to employing materials/details/items no longer available on the commercial market. Likewise many of the older techniques in modeling have been superceeded by much more effective methods which achieve far better results. As a person who has long built models based on really old MR magazine articles, because of experience I have no difficultly translating concepts or substituting materials as necessary but for newcomers it could prove to be a daunting task. Some concepts are forever, others fare badly with time.

John

[Anonymous]

John:

You raise some very good points, however it sweems to me that Kalmbach couold add a disclaimer or some other sort of exculpatory language. However, there is a lot of good info contained in many of those books that is still relevent. The John Olsen book on the Jerome & Southwestern is a good example.

Personally, I'd like to see a re-issue of all the EL moore articles with perhaps a chapter on how they could be built using today's techniques.

[Anonymous]

I don't see this as a huge problem, especially if there was some sort of explanatory note provided. Libraries don't seem to worry about someone checking out an out-of-date book (I know, not a truly parallel situation.)