On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Jon Noring wrote:
And another question for PG: In a philosophical sense (ignoring the technical/administrative realities for the moment), would PG, in its catalog, provide links to the original page scans used as the source for the cataloged digital texts? Or is there a philosophical reason why PG would not do this? I've yet to hear an answer as to whether PG will philosophically consider providing links to the original page scans used to produce the texts in its catalog.
Please be careful not to perpetuate the misunderstanding of PG as having a cabal who lurk in the shadows and dictate their "rules" for what can and cannot be done. Rather there is a group of loosely organized volunteers who look after the nuts and bolts of what actually needs to be done to keep processing copyright clearances, posting texts, keep the website running, etc. So in answering here, I'm not giving you "the official PG response". Rather, it's my understanding as a volunteer who happens to be rather involved with the catalog. Personally, I don't have a problem with linking to page scans as you mention, and I don't belive that it would be too hard to implement. Although the actual time to physically enter links could be a consideration. One of the concerns I have for the PG catalog is that it be valid over the longer term (decades) without requiring a great deal of upkeep of external links. I could easily imagine including links of many different types (as some would like) only to find in a few years that some material has been moved, some has disappeared, etc.