MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Page numbers in ebooks for scholarly research?

Panurge · 11-06-2007, 10:16 PM

I'm rather surprised that my (admittedly minor) point has generated such a discussion, so allow me to make one or two more:
Scholarly citation is meant to serve two main purposes:
1. establish the authority for a reference so that if someone cares to check your accuracy or honesty, the location of the quotation or reference can be pinpointed and verified;
2. provide a context for a quotation or reference so that the reader can understand the total argument or occasion to which it belongs.
I am convinced that electronic forms of delivery will ultimately prevail; if future readers can locate the exact source with ease (perhaps even greater ease than was possible in the print world--hyperlinks, search engines, whatever works), then we don't need page numbers. We do need to know how closely the electronic version resembles its print source.
However, there is sometimes more information in a print or handwritten source than can be easily captured in its digitized version. Medieval manuscripts, an English scholar realized recently, can sometimes be dated and associated more precisely by using DNA information from its parchment (aka, sheepskin) and ink media. Yet, as the digitization of the Beowulf manuscript also showed, high-resolution and other scanning techniques can also reveal aspects of the original that would otherwise be impossible to recognize. When you've got only one copy (like the Beowulf manuscript), you need all the help you can get.
So the original is irreplaceable for the scholar, in many cases, because its verbal content is only part of the information it contains.
Perhaps in the future we will find a way to capture all the information we are likely to need for the foreseeable future, but then there are always surprises, as the identification of parchment provenance using DNA analysis illustrates. At some point we'll simply have to draw the line and admit that we can't do everything; some information will have to be lost. The goal of the user of a particular document will determine if that loss is critical, incidental, or trivial.
For most of us, it won't matter. But for archeologists of the text, it will.

11-06-2007, 10:16 PM	#55
Panurge Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 336 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Texas Device: Sony Reader	I'm rather surprised that my (admittedly minor) point has generated such a discussion, so allow me to make one or two more: Scholarly citation is meant to serve two main purposes: 1. establish the authority for a reference so that if someone cares to check your accuracy or honesty, the location of the quotation or reference can be pinpointed and verified; 2. provide a context for a quotation or reference so that the reader can understand the total argument or occasion to which it belongs. I am convinced that electronic forms of delivery will ultimately prevail; if future readers can locate the exact source with ease (perhaps even greater ease than was possible in the print world--hyperlinks, search engines, whatever works), then we don't need page numbers. We do need to know how closely the electronic version resembles its print source. However, there is sometimes more information in a print or handwritten source than can be easily captured in its digitized version. Medieval manuscripts, an English scholar realized recently, can sometimes be dated and associated more precisely by using DNA information from its parchment (aka, sheepskin) and ink media. Yet, as the digitization of the Beowulf manuscript also showed, high-resolution and other scanning techniques can also reveal aspects of the original that would otherwise be impossible to recognize. When you've got only one copy (like the Beowulf manuscript), you need all the help you can get. So the original is irreplaceable for the scholar, in many cases, because its verbal content is only part of the information it contains. Perhaps in the future we will find a way to capture all the information we are likely to need for the foreseeable future, but then there are always surprises, as the identification of parchment provenance using DNA analysis illustrates. At some point we'll simply have to draw the line and admit that we can't do everything; some information will have to be lost. The goal of the user of a particular document will determine if that loss is critical, incidental, or trivial. For most of us, it won't matter. But for archeologists of the text, it will.