Re: [gutvol-d] jeroen's even-handed analysis

In a message dated 10/20/2004 12:43:31 PM Mountain Standard Time, shalesller@writeme.com writes: we should be doing a lot more Spanish and French and Arabic and a bunch of other languages that we generally totally ignore. We don't ignore them. We beg, plead, and implore for them. But we don't get them. I sent a personal letter to the King of Saudi Arabia explaining what we are doing and telling him that we would greatly appreciate both books in Arabic and Arabic books that are translated into English. In case you don't know it, some of the most important books of exploration and history in the middle ages happen to be in Arabic. So are some seminal mathematical books, along with a good many other books. His Majesty's staff ignored me. I sent a similar letter to the Saudi Aramco Oil Company. I got similar results, despite the fact that Saudi Aramco World is one of the best National-Geographic type magazines in print. Every month when our copy arrives my husband reads it first on the grounds that he's the historian in the family; then I get it the second he lays it down. We WANT all these other texts. Obviously what goes for English does not necessarily go for other languages, so quit badgering me about that. Now, have you got any bright ideas where we can GET those books in other languages? If so, get them, and the sooner the better. I assure that they will be posted as soon as their copyright status is determined. Anne

In a message dated 10/20/2004 12:43:31 PM Mountain Standard Time, shalesller@writeme.com writes:
we should be doing a lot more Spanish and French and Arabic and a bunch of other languages that we generally totally ignore.
In reply, Anne, Gutenberg9443@aol.com wrote:
We don't ignore them. We beg, plead, and implore for them. But we don't get them.
More in the same vein... Perhaps for a little reminder, check out this faq: http://gutenberg.net/faq/G-15 I've been contributing a few French-Canadian books to PG myself, by reformatting some already online elsewhere. I've also done the same with German texts in the past. I find it goes a good deal slower when I'm not too familiar with the language in question, because I'm afraid of letting obvious mistakes get through... Also, the numbers below (taken from the catalog) show that, although PG's non-english content can certainly be expanded, it is not insignificant: French (367) German (307) Finnish (85) Chinese (69) Spanish (59) Italian (36) I just scanned through a list of the titles posted in the last seven days, and a quick count gave me 23 in languages other than English. That doesn't seem to me to be "totally ignoring" Andrew

Don't forget all the languages available at pgcc.net Michael

Andrew Sly <sly@victoria.tc.ca> writes:
Also, the numbers below (taken from the catalog) show that, although PG's non-english content can certainly be expanded, it is not insignificant: French (367) German (307) Finnish (85) Chinese (69) Spanish (59) Italian (36)
Not too bad. German is "slow" because many good texts are available elsewhere. It starts with http://gutenberg.spiegel.de; continues with sites dedicated to special authors like Karl May, Arno Schmidt, Novalis, or Georg Simmel; and does not end with digitizing projects located at Universities (Göttingen, Trier, München, Bielefeld, Innsbruck). Especially the Austrian project (alo - austrian literature online: http://www.literature.at/) is very interesting even if seem to offer only PDF "for free". More German texts are tracked at http://www.litlinks.it -- | ,__o | _-\_<, http://www.gnu.franken.de/ke/ | (*)/'(*)
participants (4)
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Andrew Sly
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Gutenberg9443@aol.com
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Karl Eichwalder
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Michael Hart