[Bell Historians] Bellringing Books

[Michael A Williams]

On Fri, 7 May 2004, Susan Dalton wrote:

> For small runs of relatively short books, isn't there still much to be said
> for (automated) photocopying? For those who like to have hard copies of
> things, that is. I was thinking of publishing all the stuff I have got
> about bell-frames, by counties, in that way.
>
> Getting Dorset printed has not been cheap, even with the printer being
> provided with absolutely everything "on disk".

Photocopying is all well and good for making the information available but
it doesn't sustain the life of the item. It is unlikely that the
photocopied work will make its way into libraries where it has a
reasonable chance of being there for future generations to consult. They
are more likely to end up in private collections, be well used and
subsequently 'lost' from a physical and informational point of view
because they degenerate/disintegrate.

There's no denying (well at least I think so) that the extra time and
money spent on the printed book has many considerable advantages. I'm sure
Dorset has sold more copies in this form than it would have done in any
other way because it is a beautiful and professionally presented
publication.

-- 
Michael