Radio Replies: Searchable Database?

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Imprimartin

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To all apologists (amature or otherwise):

I’m thinking about typing out/scanning all three volumes of “Radio Replies” by Frs Rumble and Carty, into a searchable database. Do you think that would be helpful? Would you buy it on CD/DVD if it was a reasonable price? Would you use it if it was online?

Martin
 
:bowdown: I would love it. I have long wished there was some compilation of topics from all three volumes. I have read all 3. Love them
 
aoh we would be delighted. I understand taht at one time there were five volumes.

Pani Rose
 
I would like to order a copy now. Do you need my credit card number?
 
if this can be done legally, i would be interested. let me know.
 
Imprimartin said:
To all apologists (amature or otherwise):

I’m thinking about typing out/scanning all three volumes of “Radio Replies” by Frs Rumble and Carty, into a searchable database. Do you think that would be helpful? Would you buy it on CD/DVD if it was a reasonable price? Would you use it if it was online?

Martin
Click to expand...

Definately
 
Imprimartin said:
To all apologists (amature or otherwise):

I’m thinking about typing out/scanning all three volumes of “Radio Replies” by Frs Rumble and Carty, into a searchable database. Do you think that would be helpful? Would you buy it on CD/DVD if it was a reasonable price? Would you use it if it was online?

Martin
Click to expand...

That would be pretty cool. Not sure who owns the copyright on those volumes, though.
 
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y2daddy:
That would be pretty cool. Not sure who owns the copyright on those volumes, though.
Click to expand...
I talked to TAN books and they said that they were so old that the statute of limitations has run out and so it is fair game.

I’m very glad that there is interest. Radio Replies is really good for sound bites. In the world of truth which is often long and un-neat, these books are great for quick comebacks.
Pani Rose:
aoh we would be delighted. I understand taht at one time there were five volumes.
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If there are **five:ehh: ** volumes, if anyone knows any info about the other two, I’ll do those too. It’s best to have it all. You know?

I guess I’ll start typing.

If anyone is interested in helping out with the typing and has Microsoft Access, we can divide the work. The print is small and so there’s a lot of typing to do. I tried OCR scanning but it didn’t work that well. It think it’s because the print was so small. But I tried only once just for an experiment. Maybe there’s a way to tweak the image before I OCR it.

Martin

PS I also lost my volume one. If I can borrow somebody’s copy, that would be great. :bowdown2:
 
i may be the only one but i dont find the books to be very useful. its probably because the answers are so short and often incomplete at least in my opinion.
 
You can buy old copies off of Ebay for pretty cheap. they are OLD though. I bought one to loan out in RCIA but decided they were too old and ugly looking. But that wouldn’t matter for your use. I have never heard there are five unless the five old ones were compiled into three. Can’t help with typing cuz I have a macintosh. sorry:nope:
 
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martino:
i may be the only one but i dont find the books to be very useful. its probably because the answers are so short and often incomplete at least in my opinion.
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???
Sorry, I think the answers are pretty thorough.
 
I would be interested. However, I would request that the page numbers be retained for reference info.

Greg
 
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GAssisi:
I would be interested. However, I would request that the page numbers be retained for reference info.

Greg
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I’ll keep that in mind. I already put the chapter and which question and which volume it is. Is that enough?

Martin
 
😃 I found the 3 volume set of Radio Replies for very cheap at a thrift store! I didn’t even know what they were at the time, but I love them!
 
I have all three volumes and I love them. I lend them out to others. One suggestion I have though is I found there was a little confusion to people in them. Some of the changes since Vatican II are not indicated in the responses. For example the fasting regulations, etc. There was also something about the Marriage regulations regarding getting married in the Church with a non-catholic. (I think they were married in the rectory or something and not in the church.)When I started reading some of these I became confused.

I was then told that because these responses are pre Vatican II there will be a few problems with the text as their were regulations that do not apply or are changed now. You might want to have someone look over the information with you and put in appropriate footnotes as to new regulations.

God bless!
 
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Imprimartin:
I talked to TAN books and they said that they were so old that the statute of limitations has run out and so it is fair game.
Click to expand...
I suggest that you talk to someone knowledgeable about copyright law before you take on this task. Does the Radio Replies Press Society still retain a valid copyright to this work? You need to find this out, and you need to get written permission to create this CD from TAN Press that would stand up in court.

TAN Press could subcontract you to create the CD. You could get a royalty commission from each CD sold. That would be a win-win situation for TAN Press and yourself. If you would be willing to work for compensation by commission, TAN Press would have no up front costs involved, and they would get a product to sell. Heck, this could turn into a career. TAN Press has a lot of works that could use this treatment.

I would buy a CD of Radio Replies that is indexed and hyperlinked.

Scanners and OCR software are improving all the time. High resolution scanners are cheap now, but they require a fast processor in a computer loaded with enough RAM to use the high resolution data, since the scanned document is a bit mapped image that needs to be converted by the OCR software.

If you buy some used copies of the books that you want to scan, you can cut the pages out of the books so that the page to be scanned lies flat on the scanner. It has been my experience that helps a lot to get scans that the OCR software can convert efficiently.

You will still have to proof read word for word the OCR generated text against the original text. Puntuation and mispellings errors inevitably will occur in the OCR conversion process. Different OCR programs will work better or worse for any given page layout and typefont. One particular OCR software might work best for the layout and fonts used in the Radio Replies book.

You could contact New Advent and ask them what they learned by scanning in the Catholic Encycopedia. That Encyclopedia used a very small font for the footnotes, and that project began when scanners and OCR software were not as good as what is availble today.
 
Dear Martin,

Though I have seen such a convention (question/chapter/book number), I have only seen it used for ancient works. I am not sure the Radio Replies qualifies as “ancient.” If the original book is still accesible, I think the standard convention is to cite the page number as well for reference information. So I think retaining the page numbers would be good.

Thanks for the consideration.

Greg
 
Hmmm…

Okay I’ll add the page numbers.

and I’ll check on the copyrights. I talked w/TAN books and they told me that they don’t sell software. I talked w/Harmony Media, the people who produce “Welcome to the Catholic Church”, ‘The Summa’, and “Butler’s Lives of the Saints” on CD, and they said that it probably wouldn’t sell as a product by itself.

Even if it doesn’t, I could put it online. Put up SQL server and have some kind of front end.

Thanks for the scanning tips!

Martin
 
They do have a new Copywirte of 1979. I would get written permission. The original Corywrite is 1940 which does not put them in Eminate Domain that would have to be 1928 or before. So make sure for your sake that you have written permission for Tan Books.

Pani Rose
 
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