HIT:National Geographic CDs vs. paper editions

[Joan Kimball <jkim@BORG.COM>]

I want to thank everyone who replied to my query.
I wanted to know whether I should throw out the magazines once I got
National Geographics on CD.  I bought several decades (not the whole set)
because I saw the list of messages last fall, and, not reading them,
assumed the CDs must be GOOD!  The laugh is on me.
Here are the recent messages.  Joan Kimball    jkim@borg.com

******************************
From S.E.
 I haven't gotten rid of our magazines because we have found that
when we print out an article from the CD it is SLOW - and I mean SLOW!  It
took about 20 minutes to print out one article, and only one person needed
to use the CD - thankfully.
*******************************
From M.B.
I have the same concerns, only my situation goes back to 1925!!
When/if you hear of any good ideas, will you send the responses to me.  I have
no room anymore in the library for storage of this type of material.
******************************
from D.B.
Best to keep the paper editions.  The scanned page images are not always
easy to read and why have students print out pages off the CD when they can
checkout the original once they have found what they need.  The best part
of the CD set, after the old ads,  is the search engine.  Our print copies
are getting more use now than they ever did before we purchased the CD's.
*******************************
from J. L.
Install them and take a good look at the quality of the print. The ones I
got were so poor(the photos were o.k.) that even greatly enlarged the print
was hard to read.If you are only reading captions or a small amount of text,
it's probably o.k.

This was a cd my husband bought on a subscription plan to aquire the set,
and he promptly discontinued it. When I showed it to a teacher at my school,
she agreed it was not worth the $160 price for the set. Apparently the
company who produced it (not Nat'l Geo) just cheaply scanned the pages. This
was a big topic on LMNet (last fall, I think) - there were quite a few
others who were disapointed in the quality as well.

Anyway, since you have the discs, do look for yourself unless by opening
them you void the return privilege. In that case, try to view someone elses'
set if you can.
*******************************
From C.T.
Nobody loves software more than me but it makes me very sad that anyone
would consider throwing out important magazines like National Geographic.
There is nothing like holding one and studying the images, which can't be
matched on CD-ROM.  Save the the magazines!
*******************************
From R.H.
Could you please either post a hit or forward me the replies?  We are also
in the same situation.  I really can't think of a reason to save these.
Also, do you know if the CD will be updated periodically? TIA
*******************************
From J.B.
I just received the CD's for 1888-present, and I have decided to dump the
paper copy.  It's tough, tho!  It's like dumping the Reader's Guide.  Just
can't do that yet.  :)  But, I'm going to tough it up and throw out the
Nat'l Geo's.  In my 2 years as a Librarian, I have not had anyone use any
of the old ones anyway, and they make great mags to cut up ... I let
teachers come get the old issues.
********************************

Joan Kimball, Librarian, Hart's Hill School, Whitesboro NY 13492
E-mail:  jkim@borg.com

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