Mark, Thanks for making this point. The Portal is searchable, free, and designed specifically for this purpose. Butch makes a point I've heard from others, that we can scan and post the material. We can, but not nearly as well. The Portal is based at the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries where high-end equipment is used to get quality that isn't available to most people, and the staff encrypts metadata and other information that makes the posted material far more discoverable, and even useable for technologies not yet available.
If anyone is interested in digitally posting their newsletters on the Karst Information Portal, contact me off-list. NCKRI is a partner with USF in developing and managing the Portal. For anyone who hasn't checked it out, visit www.karstportal.org. George Sent from my mobile phone ******************** George Veni, Ph.D. Executive Director National Cave and Karst Research Institute 400-1 Cascades Avenue Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220-6215 USA Office: 575-887-5517 Mobile: 210-863-5919 Fax: 575-887-5523 [email protected] www.nckri.org -------- Original message -------- From: Mark Minton <[email protected]> Date: 2014/03/20 20:44 (GMT-07:00) To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Texascavers] R.I.P. Speleo Digest A better solution might be for all grottos, regions, etc. that publish newsletters to send them to the Karst Information Portal. They already process a number of regional publications (including the NSS News and Texas Caver) and OCR the text so that it is searchable. The NSS could theoretically do the same, but it seems less likely to actually get done, at least in the short term. (The NSS still does not have electronic records of all past NSS members, for example.) Mark At 10:29 PM 3/20/2014, Butch Fralia \(CAVEDBA\) wrote: >That's not necessarily electronic where those not hanging around Huntsville >can access. > >A good bunch of volunteers could probably digitize them in a couple of >years. >\ >Butch Fralia >3412 Walton Ave. >Fort Worth, TX 76133-2230 >[email protected] >(Home) 817 346-2039 >(Cell) 817 229-7693 > >-----Original Message----- >From: Preston Forsythe [mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 9:00 PM >To: [email protected]; Mixon Bill; Cavers Texas >Subject: Re: [Texascavers] R.I.P. Speleo Digest > >All Grotto newsletters should be available at the NSS Library in Huntsville. > >If not then someone failed to send the NSS a copy. > >Preston > >--------------------------------------------------------------- >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Logan McNatt" <[email protected]> >To: "Mixon Bill" <[email protected]>; "Cavers Texas" ><[email protected]> >Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2014 8:04 PM >Subject: Re: [Texascavers] R.I.P. Speleo Digest > > > Thanks for the news, Bill, which will mean something only to the older > > generations of cavers, many of whom probably still have their collection > > of Speleo Digests. They certainly were a good resource in the pre-digital > > > years, and I'm glad to know that some of them are available online. Thanks > > > for your part in producing several of them. > > > > On 3/20/2014 7:26 PM, Mixon Bill wrote: > >> I see from the minutes of the NSS Board of Governors meeting on March 15 > >> that the Speleo Digest series, the last issue of which was for 2003, is > >> now officially dead. That's a shame, but it seems to acknowledge reality. > > >> The series reprinted the best material out of grotto newsletters during > >> the title year, and was essentially _the_ library of American caves and > >> caving. It was started by the Pittsburgh Grotto in 1956. Production was > >> taken over by the NSS for the 1964 issue. > >> > >> I edited and prepared two or three issues back around 1970. The amount of > > >> material in each issue has more than doubled since then; the 2003 has > >> almost 600 pages of three-column small type. On the other hand, I had to > >> retype everything on a typewriter and assemble the pages with scissors > >> and paste. Modern technology and the ability to request files for most of > > >> the articles from the publishing grottos ought to have compensated, it > >> seems to me, but nevertheless getting it out proved to be beyond > >> volunteers. Of course as the years went by, the interest in working on an > > >> issue years out of date decreased. (The 2003 didn't actually come out > >> until 2007.) > >> > >> Without the Speleo Digest, a lot of great cave explorations and maps > >> published locally are essentially inaccessible. Sigh. -- Bill Mixon Please reply to [email protected] Permanent email address is [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
