[Sca-cooks] Noble Boke/This is the Book-- was In Search of

[Wanda Pease]

Johannae,

	Is there a reason to think that Longleat wouldn't give permission to use
the work?  Even if they were given credit as the owners, or possibly some
sort of Royalty or contribution for its use?
	I can understand if the microfilming process requires the original of the
book to be subjected to light, but if there is a good microfilm already
available why wouldn't they want it available to the public in one form or
another for study and use?
	It always seems a bit dog-in-the-manger for collections to sit on important
documentation without good reason, such as damage to the item.
	Can the EEBO copy be read on the screen even if it can't be printed?

Regina Romsey

Greetings from Johnnae llyn Lewis

As some of you may already know this is my field of interest, both
professionally as a librarian and bibliographer and as someone who has
been in the Society since 1973.

Actually there is another microfilm available that is readable. As I
explained in my session at CooksCon back in January, this book has been
an obession of mine for over 2 decades. I had several conversations with
UMI back in the 1980's regarding the poor quality of the master copy of
their microfilm. I offered at the time to pay a rate of 50 cents per
page for a printed copy direct from them and was told that it wouldn't
be readable. When I received advance access to EEBO in its trial version
several years ago, one of the first things I checked is how this looked
on EEBO. The quality is somewhat better but full pages still print off
as black or gray squiggles on black. As I reprted back in January, this
means that you can sit in the comfort of your own home now and download
unreadable images.

However never giving up on the subject, I kept looking and discovered
another microfilm exists from another project.
I have had a copy for the past year. I paid almost 100 dollars for the
microfilm. The scanning off print charges for printing a copy off runs
in excess of another $150-$200 depending on what the charge per page is.
(It can run upwards of a dollar a page. It also takes literally hours to
scan and print it off.) I probably have the only readable copy from this
microfilm in the country. It's not catalogued as being held by any
collection nor did the company have any records that it had ever been
previously sold to anyone in the USA.

HOWEVER

You also cannot do anything with the work without seeeking approval from
Longleat. The microfilm very clearly carries that warning on it. This is
not an instance where violating copyright is an option.