[SCC_Active_Members] RE: the Quirks in Reviving CS books

[Dag Spicer]

Hi Ed,

We have internally taken the ACM's list and made it a shopping list for
our library.  As it turns out, we already have more than 3/4 of the
titles...

I agree about the 'quirk...'  I wonder what makes an out-of=print book
somehow more hoary?  Weird guideline.  We have no such constraints, of
course, and collect vigorously, esp. wrt to books that limned/forged the
disciplinary foundations of CS.

Anyway, CHM Press!  Yes... we have thought of this for quite some time.


I think it is worth pursuing in the future...

Dag.




-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Feigenbaum 
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 10:42 AM
To: Bernard Peuto
Cc: 'Gust, Kathe'; 'SCC active'
Subject: the Quirks in Reviving CS books

Dear Bernard and all,

Bernard's idea is a good one. I just want to remind those who may or  
may not have participated
in the ACM contest/survey, that there was an important quirk in the  
survey.

Books that are still in print were not eligible, even if they are  
"classics." An example
is the  1963 "Computers and Thought" that was edited by myself and  
Julian Feldman.  I asked McGraw Hill to
return the copyright to me and Feldman, and then we donated it to the  
American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
AAAI Press and MIT Press then reprinted it as a "classic". So it is  
not out of print, and
therefore was not eligible.

That may have happened in the case of several other "classics". For  
example, Knuth's famous books on the Art of Programming are
still in print (and sell vigorously, I think).

Anything we can do to augment Bernard's suggestion so as  to handle  
these quirky cases?

Best wishes to all, and continued congratulations on the great effort  
by the volunteers and the CHM staff,

Ed Feigenbaum

p.s. another issue: what about setting up a CHM Press, similar to  
what the AAAI did. Then people can donate the
copyrights to "classics" to the CHM and the CHM can choose to  
republish (sooner or later). I am guessing that MIT Press
or Stanford Press would be willing to enter into a publishing  
partnership as MIT Press did with the AAAI.

We would need an editor of the CHM imprint.  A volunteer could easily  
do the job.