Putting American Rose Annuals on file, PDF format

Okay, I’ve gotten a nice collection of ARS annuals, and now that I have a scanner, I’ve scanned a few articles for my own sake. But copying an entire book would be rather fast, so what do you think about converting every annual published since the foundation of the ARS? It would be a great way to document the annuals and give access to people of the older annuals. So far I’ve only saved a few articles. I’ve been buying the most cheapest on Zshops on Amazon.com.

I’d love to have a set of ARS annuals on CD-ROM. There may be copyright issues. The ARS probably wouldn’t object if you make copies for your own use. They might not object if you give a few copies away, but if you make a profit from them, they may want a piece of it.

The copyright has expired on the earliest annuals (pre-1923), so there wouldn’t be any problem with distributing copies of them.

Link: www.bitlaw.com/copyright/duration.html

Until the 40s the ARS did not hold the copyrights, McFarland did.

When I served on the American Rose Society Historical Committee, my pet project was to put the annuals on CD. We could never get an O.K. from the ARS.

Although the copyright filings for recent years can be searched via the internet, the earlier years would require a hand search. I would think that this would be required to see if McFarland’s heirs renewed the copyrights.

Link: www.copyright.gov/records/cohd.html

Oh well, I guess I could do this for myself. I mean, the ARS won’t prevent me from buying the annuals and doing whatever I wanted to do with them. Just thought that this would be a great thing especially when I have an especially hard time finding older annuals (some I’ve seen sell up to the hundreds) and I do not know where I can borrow copies.

Enrique, I don’t know where you’re located, but although my local library doesn’t have any copies of Modern Roses, from the library’s web site I can access a state library system and there I found older copies of Modern Roses (unfortunately none of the newer ones) that I would likely be able to get through interlibrary loan.

Question: How useful is “Modern Roses XI”? If I could get it cheaper (2/3 of full cost) w/out the CDROM would that be worth it? Or is the searchability of the CDROM justify the additonal $30?

Enrique, I have the full set of Annuals, and I also have Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (I do not see where upgrading to 6.0 adds much). When I have time (which is not now as the roses are just starting to flower), I will start putting the pre 1923 Annuals on CD or DVD. I include DVD because I also have a copy of the video hybridizing tape that Virgil Mitchell distributed freely.

I will post here if and when I am finished. As far as distribution it would be at no charge, but the details would have to be worked out. One possibility would be the method that Virgil used of sending it (paying the postage) to one who sends (and pays the postage) to the next on the list, etc.

Another would be to include it as a supplement in a mailing of the quarterly RHA newsletter.

Of course it could be put on a web page for downloading but it is my experience that PDF formats are inefficient (size wise) for that purpose.

Chris, I have Modern Roses XI and I never use the book, only the CD. With the CD, it is very easy to find all the roses with, for example, Fragrant Cloud as a parent. That would take a very long time to do using the book.

There was an add in the American Rose a few months ago announcing that the CD was available without the book for a greatly reduced price. You might want to check with the ARS to see if it is still available.

I find the PDF format unfriendly and inconvenient to use. I’d much rather see the annuals made into HTML files, so everyone can read them without adopting proprietary software to view them.

Paul

Paul I found the early annuals hard to scan with the earlier versions of OmniPage. I do have the latest version so I can try a test scan. This type of scan would certainly take much less disk space.

This is a scan of 2 pages open face down (since the annuals are small size books, one can scan 2 papes at a time. This was done with OmiPages Pro 12. The program does have a “learning” function which was turned off for this scan.

THE AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY

ORGANIZED MARCH 18, 1899

"To increase the general interest in the cultivation and improve

the standard of excellence of the Rose for all people"

O}F1CERS, 1915

President