On 16 Sep 2014, at 00:15, Liam R E Quin wrote: On Mon, 15 Sep 201418:11:39 -0400 Page count is another one of those troublesome fields. :) I have my trusty copy of McKerrow on hand for bibliography and citing collations :-) -- Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/ Liam This is interesting in the context of a discussion about complexity -- and though the following comes from the print book world, it maybe helps illustrate... The point about page counts (extents) that Laura hints at is that the correct page count depends who you are. If you are in a publisher's editorial department, then you'll remember to count the roman numbered pages (the 'prelims'). If you are a member of the public, most likely you won't -- you'll just look at the highest numbered page. If you are in production, and responsible for ordering the paper, then you'll count the prelims, the main body of the book, the end matter, the blank and unnumbered pages at the end, and you might also remember to count the unnumbered pages in a plate section (a special insert for photographs, which is usually unnumbered because you can't always predict at which point in the book it will be bound in). None of these views is wrong -- the seemingly simple question 'What is the page count?" has several correct answers, each of them contextual. ONIX appears complex (no, I'll say it, it is complex) because it allows any or all of these correct answers to be given. But it defines each answer reasonably carefully -- so you can provide a page extent without the prelims, with the prelims, counting or not counting the index, without the blanks, with the blanks, with the plate section, and so on -- and the data recipient can be sure which answer(s) you are giving. There is a controlled vocabulary of 'extent types'. It even allows extents to be given in minutes (for audiobooks) or in words (potentially useful for web publications and reflowable e-books, though right now, lack of familiarity with word counts means that non-specialists can't really judge whether an 60,000 word novel is relatively short or relatively long). Graham Graham Bell EDItEUR Tel: +44 20 7503 6418 EDItEUR Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no 2994705. Registered Office: United House, North Road, London N7 9DP, UK. Website: http://www.editeur.org
Received on Tuesday, 16 September 2014 12:00:40 UTC