On Thu, 21 Apr 2005, Robert Shimmin wrote:
1. What is the approximate success rate & timetable for getting missing pages for books in DP? (I.e., how many books are stalled for missing pages, and how many have had their pages found/restored, and how long after proofreading was complete did this happen?)
My experience as a DP projet manager is that if I simply put a page request up for grabs, I might get a bite, and I might not; I feel the half-life of these "passive" requests might be measured in months.
If I am more proactive, and look through library catalogs to identify a library that claims to have the book I need a page from, and then ask a fellow DP-er who might have access to that library, I get better results. My experience is that if I ask two or three people, at least one of them will be willing and able to make the scan at their convenience, and they usually find it convenient to do so within a week or three.
So, if a person is willing to put the legwork into locating the book, they will probably get results. Not quickly, but not glacially slowly, either.
If you would send me such requests for inclusion in the Newsletter, that might help. When we put requests for such materials in the Newsletter, we usually get a response within a week about about half the time. This goes up to about 3/4 if we leave the request in for a month. Michael