3 ms·

Very, very cool. Hats off. I've considered attempting a more limited form of this for years. For those who don't know, the 1911 Britannica is heralded for se

Very, very cool. Hats off. I've considered attempting a more limited form of this for years. For those who don't know, the 1911 Britannica is heralded for several reasons (and rightly criticized for regrettable others), but the most well-known is that it was the last encyclopedia before The Great War, and hence had a good amount of steam/optimism coming from the first and second industrial revolutions and the "Progressive Era", not sullied yet by thoughts of "the war to end all wars". Trying https://britannica11.org https://britannica11.org specifically, it quickly found and displayed the article I searched for, chosen (to search for) at random: Portuguese East Africa, at https://britannica11.org/article/22-0177-portuguese-east-africa/portuguese_east_africa https://britannica11.org/article/22-0177-portuguese-east-afr... A question/idea for nice-to-haves, most respectfully. I don't know if it would be feasible. It's probably perfect as it is, simply linking to the image-page in unobtrusive text for each section. But I would love an option (emphasis on option) to see the text side by side with the page images. That parallel view would load all of the page images on the same page as the full article text. That way, I could "confirm" or "fact check" the faithfulness of the OCR, and also see the beautiful printing, at once, without opening each page separately and managing the images/windows myself. Most likely, I would use the site to jump to the articles, and read them mainly as images, only switching to the text form to verify what something said, or to copy-paste cleanly, etc. (As it is, initially, I thought I read the original images were available, but had to visit the page three (3!) times before finding where the side-links to them were.) Maybe thumbnails could be a middle-ground option (again, optional) for salience. Very, very well done. And it's fast!

ahaspel 6mo ago
Thanks — really appreciate that, and glad it worked well for a random article. That’s a great suggestion. A side-by-side text + page view would be very nice for exactly the reasons you mention (verifying the text and seeing the original layout). I haven’t built that yet, but I’ve considered it. Also helpful to hear that the links to the scans weren’t immediately obvious — I should probably make them a bit clearer. This may also not be obvious, but you can click the vol:page links in the left margin and go directly to the scan of whatever page you're reading. Thanks again.
aragonite 6mo ago
> But I would love an option (emphasis on option) to see the text side by side with the page images. ... That way, I could "confirm" or "fact check" the faithfulness of the OCR. You can already do that on Wikisource. For example, here's p. 658 from the entry on "Molecule": https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/688 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/... Also OP: I noticed some fidelity issues in your version (at https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule). For example parts of the math formula under the line that ends with "the molecules of other kinds" ([1]) are missing (compare [2]). Also, in your version fn. 1 of this article is attached to "as they have always done" ([3]) but it should actually be attached to "Atom" on p. 654 ([4]): [1] https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text=the%20molecules%20of%20other%20kinds https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text... [2] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/688 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/... [3] https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text=as%20they%20have%20always%20done https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text... [4] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/684#cite_note-654f1-1 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/...
- realityfactchex 6mo ago
  That's cool about the WikiSource parallel text+image page view, TIL. Thanks! As an example flow (since it took a minute to figure out): we can start at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica then click to navigate/browse volume > section > topic to get to a text page, then click Source tab, then click a Page Number (maybe hunt around for the correct page number), and see the parallel view, text + image. With previous and next page buttons available, retaining the parallel text + image view.
  - realityfactchex 6mo ago
    Following up, another WikiSource flow is the following: 1. Go to https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britan... 2. Click button "Search the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica". This currently goes to the page at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&prefix=1911+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+Britannica&fulltext=Search+the+1911+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+Britannica&fulltext=Search https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&prefix... 3. Enter the search term and click Search. (There is auto-suggest for some topics, but Search button seems to give more complete results.) 4. Get to the text page of interest, such as https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Anthracite https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britan... 5. Notice the left margin contains hyperlinks like [105] whwere 105 is the page number nd links directl;y to the side-by side view of page 105. Click the [105] link on the left (for example), to get to https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AEB1911_-_Volume_02.djvu/116 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AEB1911_-_Volume_02.djv... which shows the text-and-image side by side (for that page). This flow avoids the hunting-for-the-right page step, by using the direct links.

ahaspel 6mo ago

Thanks — really appreciate that, and glad it worked well for a random article. That’s a great suggestion. A side-by-side text + page view would be very nice for exactly the reasons you mention (verifying the text and seeing the original layout). I haven’t built that yet, but I’ve considered it. Also helpful to hear that the links to the scans weren’t immediately obvious — I should probably make them a bit clearer. This may also not be obvious, but you can click the vol:page links in the left margin and go directly to the scan of whatever page you're reading. Thanks again.

aragonite 6mo ago

> But I would love an option (emphasis on option) to see the text side by side with the page images. ... That way, I could "confirm" or "fact check" the faithfulness of the OCR. You can already do that on Wikisource. For example, here's p. 658 from the entry on "Molecule": https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/688 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/... Also OP: I noticed some fidelity issues in your version (at https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule). For example parts of the math formula under the line that ends with "the molecules of other kinds" ([1]) are missing (compare [2]). Also, in your version fn. 1 of this article is attached to "as they have always done" ([3]) but it should actually be attached to "Atom" on p. 654 ([4]): [1] https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text=the%20molecules%20of%20other%20kinds https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text... [2] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/688 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/... [3] https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text=as%20they%20have%20always%20done https://britannica11.org/article/18-0684-s2/molecule#:~:text... [4] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/684#cite_note-654f1-1 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:EB1911_-_Volume_18.djvu/...

realityfactchex 6mo ago
That's cool about the WikiSource parallel text+image page view, TIL. Thanks! As an example flow (since it took a minute to figure out): we can start at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica then click to navigate/browse volume > section > topic to get to a text page, then click Source tab, then click a Page Number (maybe hunt around for the correct page number), and see the parallel view, text + image. With previous and next page buttons available, retaining the parallel text + image view.
- realityfactchex 6mo ago
  Following up, another WikiSource flow is the following: 1. Go to https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britan... 2. Click button "Search the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica". This currently goes to the page at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&prefix=1911+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+Britannica&fulltext=Search+the+1911+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+Britannica&fulltext=Search https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&prefix... 3. Enter the search term and click Search. (There is auto-suggest for some topics, but Search button seems to give more complete results.) 4. Get to the text page of interest, such as https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Anthracite https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britan... 5. Notice the left margin contains hyperlinks like [105] whwere 105 is the page number nd links directl;y to the side-by side view of page 105. Click the [105] link on the left (for example), to get to https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AEB1911_-_Volume_02.djvu/116 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AEB1911_-_Volume_02.djv... which shows the text-and-image side by side (for that page). This flow avoids the hunting-for-the-right page step, by using the direct links.