Re: AIS: Checklists--Biting the Bullet

    Anner Whitehead's comments are so learned, lucid and lively that I always enjoy reading them, even when I don't agree.  In the case of the AIS checklists, I would most emphatically agree that the organization should not make them available free.  AIS is always short or near-short on funds, and the checklist information which it has gone to the time and expense of gathering should, indeed, serve the financial needs of the group
    However, I can't agree about the ease of getting used to the color-by-number-and-letter grids of the 1939 checklist.  I find it a great nuisance to use, and of very little help on many occasions, without considerable extra work.  To the occasional searcher, the grids are a frustrating interference in the quest for desirable information.  A most worthwhile updating project, in my view, would be re-publishing that checklist with the information translated into words anyone can understand at a glance without having to look up a color grid or memorize a color grid chart.  If the purpose of publishing the material is inform and let people know, then it ought to be in the peoples' regular parlance.  I know that to do this would take much time, the commodity of which nobody ever has enough, but I daresay there'd be many grateful people who would be much more willing to pay the price of the book because it would be instantly understandable. 
    Now I shall climb down from the hobbyhorse!  Can you tell I've been frustrated by this a few times?  And, Anner, I still enjoy your writings!!
Arnold
 
   
 
 
 
Arnold & Carol Koekkoek
38 7th Street, NE
Sioux Center, IA 51250
e-mail  k*@mtcnet.net
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index