Would you like to own EVERY SINGLE Model Engineer edition ever published?

I just finished reading a fascinating book "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu" which despite the flippant title is an amazing story of how 377,000 ancient African manuscripts were rounded up in the 1980s and 90s from their hiding places in family homes and desert caves and and put in libraries in Timbuktu, then saved from destruction by the invading jihadi Al Qaeda types in 2013. Along the way, they managed to scan and store copies of the whole 377,000 manuscripts. So it can be done. But many millions of dollars were spent in the process!

It's a remarkable story and many of the manuscripts were about mathematics and sciences etc that did not emerge in Europe until many centuries later. Well worth a read.

Ade Panton,

I need just a few more volumes to complete my collection. So look forward to your disposals. Its the first 20 or 30 years issues that are so difficult to obtain.

John

I have just read Hopper's posting on "The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu", I must get a copy of that it sounds a good read.

The fact that they had to collect the manuscripts from family homes and desert caves just goes to show how easy it is for valuable documents to be lost forever.

Mike Poole's suggestion that as a project we each scan a set number of issues from our collections in an agreed format is a very sound idea. Many years ago I was one of a group of volunteers involved in the transferring of over 270,000 hand written records into a computer database, it did not take forever, so it can be done. Just needs that first step.

This need not be confined to just ME or MEW, between us we probably hold many very interesting books and documents that are now not available, even to the British Library.

Up to ME issue 4584 there are probably less than 300,000 pages that need copying, and that includes the very interesting covers and the advertisements inside which can be a valuable source of information.

Any volunteers?

Neil

From Volume 100 to 130 there are PDFs about so that is quite a big chunk that may not need scanning again and partial volumes in the 80-99 range.. Though they lack the cover and any advert pages which I quite enjoy looking at as much as the editorial.

I'll volunteer my pdfs to anyone who whats to compile the rest

There are also quite a few mags in the ME website documents black hole if you know where to look for them that were loaded by David Clarke.

Edited By JasonB on 25/04/2018 13:24:02

That's what I do when I want a complete article from a magazine. Even preview each page to make sure it is neat!

I thought OCD meant One Careful Driver.

Hi Editor Neil

A number of the scanning devices don't open bound books more than 90 degrees, about the same as if you were reading them. Keith Rucker at Vintage Machinery is compiling a free database of mainly American Machinery. He made a video of how he scans Books and brochures.


Regards
John >**LINK**

The manuscripts had been in ancient libraries and informal universities in Timbuktu for centuries but were hidden in the family homes of prominent scholars and others in the 17th century to escape a previous fundamentalist jihad that swept down from the north, and then to keep them safe from the French colonial occupiers who looted whatever they could. It is quite a story. And yes, it does show how easily irreplaceable documents could be lost for ever.

John, thanks for that ..... not so much for the scanning information but for the pointer to the Vintage Machinery site. That looks like one really useful site (machinery info, manuals etc).