[ANSTHRLD] Consulting Library

[tmcd at panix.com]

On Fri, 19 May 2006, Faelan Caimbeul <faelancaimbeul at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to have the Scotish books available, or at least
> copies. I had the idea of scanning the books and making a virtual
> copy of the library for distribution. It's going to be a time
> consuming process, I'm sure, but would be well worth it I think,
> since many of the mare out of print and not attainable anymore.

There *is* the copyright issue ...

> I also had the ridiculously whacked out idea of making a simple
> database that would contain all the names and references for easy
> search and reference. This would take MUCH longer, probably years,
> and would require some help. Anyone else think this a useful, if
> insane idea?

Depends on exactly what you mean, but I think it's been discussed
often and generally considered not useful.

Recently on the SCA Heralds' list, someone proposed "documenting the
easy names".  The problem is that a simple listing that such-and-so a
name is period, or is dated to blah, is not useful: you need to know
what the original source *says* about the name.  (<rant>That's the #1
systematic problem of Ansteorran submissions nowadays.</rant>)

If you mean something like "Michael: see Withycombe, p. 317; Reaney
and Wilson, p. 411; Dauzat, p. 23" (the pages are totally made up, and
there's more than one Dauzat anyway).  That's useless for doccing, but
I can forsee naive submitters copying that into the doc box verbatim.
If you already know the language and culture, you know to check
Withycombe, R&W, or whatever.  If you don't know the language or
culture, the submitter should know (because how did they get the
name?), or you can ask someone to check Yonge or Hanks and Hodges for
pointers.

I'm a bit tired, so I can just hope I'm making sense ...

Danihel de Lindonio
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com