Caligulette - I Need Help

[wei yau]

Yeah, I'm calling you out. Mostly cause of your occupation.

Actually, I just need to know how to calculate how many pages are in a shelf meter?

I've tried the Google, but I'm not getting any solid hits.

My initial estimate is about 100 pages equal an inch. Would that be reasonable?

[godfry n. glad]

Interesting question, wei. I would think that it would vary with the type, and weight, of paper used in the pagination. Journal pages can be quite thin compared to standard monograph pages.

How soon do you need this? If Caligulette doesn't know, I can kick it around at work (a library) and see if any of my cohorts happen to know. Library resources should be concerned as much as booksellers, because the issue is storage and shelf space, a critical one for smaller libraries.

A "shelf meter", eh? Wouldn't you want to know how many pages per centimeter?

ETA: Is this any help - http://www.casepaper.com/calc_ppi.htm?

[wei yau]

Yeah, I figured that the type of pages would be a factor. I'd say assume monograph pages, as opposed to journal pages. I might have to fudge the numbers a touch since some of the materials are pamphlets (which I'm assuming are thicker than even monograph pages).

Centimeter or inches don't matter, I can do the conversion and I really just need a rough estimate.

[Caligulette]

Shoot - I only just saw this. Yeah, everything said above is going to factor into it. Generally Pamphlet paper is a bit thicker. We also have to consider the binding - hardcovers vs paperbacks vs ?? Bible paper is thin, kidbook paper is fat, and on and on...

[Ymir's blood]

Help me, Cali-Wan Gulette; you're my only hope
:r2d2:

[wei yau]

Yeah, I've figured that I'm not going to be able to get a number to use as a metric.

The collection I'm talking about consists of an unknown number of hardbound volumes, ring binders and boxes of pamphlets.

I'll just pull a number out of my ass.

[Sock Puppet]

Can we have just ONE thread around here without you pulling something out of your ass? :glare:

[Dingfod]

Yeah, I've figured that I'm not going to be able to get a number to use as a metric.

The collection I'm talking about consists of an unknown number of hardbound volumes, ring binders and boxes of pamphlets.

I'll just pull a number out of my ass.You could just count the number of pages in one inch and multiply by the total number of inches.


What, too obvious?

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, I've figured that I'm not going to be able to get a number to use as a metric.

The collection I'm talking about consists of an unknown number of hardbound volumes, ring binders and boxes of pamphlets.

I'll just pull a number out of my ass.You could just count the number of pages in one inch and multiply by the total number of inches.


What, too obvious?

Open to huge fucking sampling error. Might as well pull numbers out of Wei's ass. Provide them the answer in "ass widths", with the rate of transition in 'furlongs per fortnight'.

Boxes of pamphlets? Oh, library catalogers love boxes of pamphlets. Particularly if they are mixed pamphlets. From different sources. On different topics. That's the funnest.

[BrotherMan]

Out of nowhere. My silly roommate misheard a line from Superman. When Zod is being punished he shouts defiantly "Your heirs, Jor-El!" or some such. My roommate was shocked because he thought he heard "Your ass, Jor-El!"

So, the running gag is to add "Jor-El!" any time we hear the word ass used.

:shiftier:

What?

[Dingfod]

Open to huge fucking sampling error.True, but it would be a SWAG, Scientific Wild Ass Guess, much much better than just a wild ass guess.

[Deadlokd]

Hey Cal, do you get science textbooks in your shop? Like, for instance, off the top of my head, Microbial ecology: fundamentals and applications by Atlas and Bartha 4th edn published in 1997. Just as an example, mind you. Despite the fact that it's 12 years old it's still around the $150 mark brand new. I'm hoping to find it cheaper.[/shameless thread hijack]

[Caligulette]

We do get textbooks. You should go to the site to see if we have that particular one - though the age tells me probably not.... We like to keep current.

[godfry n. glad]

We do get textbooks. You should go to the site to see if we have that particular one - though the age tells me probably not.... We like to keep current.

WHAT?!

This from the bookstore where 'used' was the reason d'être?

:facepalm:

So sad.

Back in the day....uh...wrong thread.

I don't know why they list themselves as a used bookstore anymore. They are using what borders on 'bait and switch' by being listed in the used books section and then stocking primarily new...or pushing it, at least. Using 'used books' as loss leaders, are you?

I say search online for it, Deadlokd.

Check the used book purveyors....Alibris...AbeBooks...Biblio.com...Some of them have lots of textbooks. There are even online meta-search engines that run searches of six or seven of the sites on any given item. Were I at work, I could dig up a few more good ones that we use when replacing medical texts in our collection. They'll ship almost anywhere in the world.

Don't bother with Powell's, though. They're one of those 'loss leader' types.

[Joshua Adams]

Amazon.com Marketplace has one listed for $49, it seems like you can get things shipped to Australia according to the shipping rates page.

Amazon.com: Used and New: Microbial Ecology: Fundamentals and Applications (4th Edition) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0805306552/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used)

[ceptimus]

If you have some reasonably accurate weighing scales, then you can speed up the counting using a 'counting by weight' technique.

Weigh one typical book, box of pamphlets, and so on. Then count the pages in those.

Then you could take a typical, say, one-foot-stack, weigh the items contained in that stack and so calculate a typical pages-per-foot figure.

[Caligulette]

O, bite me. We can't re-sell what people do not part with, for one thing, and we can't just stockpile until the cows come home. We already have three warehouses full of used books - and the majority of what we stock in store is used. (My own section is approx. 70% used, so there).

Textbooks in particular are hard to move if they're not currently required for a class, and if they are currently required, most people trade them in at their school bookshops for whatever they need next.

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I wuz just snarking you for working for The Man.

Only now it's The Woman, isn't it?

Anyway, I've tried to stay away for years, but if I KNOW what I want, a lightning precision raid through CoB may be in order. In a case where I happen to know where the item is located within the bowels of the montrous repository(ies) might even seal the deal. But if I'm browsing with money in hand, I'll take it to Annie Bloom or Looking Glass.

Plus, even in my day, almost anything could be construed as a 'textbook', particularly if you were a literature major.

Plus, I've been in the 'Technical Books' outlet you guys run, and it's mostly textbooks. Or what I would call textbooks.

Perhaps there is something I'm not understanding in your usage of the descriptive term 'textbooks'?

[Caligulette]

"Textbooks" refer to books made and used specifically for school.

I have no quibble with Annie Blooms, and recommend Looking Glass Books, too.

The Man...Pfft.

[Deadlokd]

We do get textbooks. You should go to the site to see if we have that particular one - though the age tells me probably not.... We like to keep current.


Umm, what is the website?

Oddly enough it is the current textbook for microbial ecology. I guess nothing new has been discovered in the last 12 years.

[Caligulette]

powells.com

[godfry n. glad]

Okay...Back at work today and, in addition to those already supplied...

allbookstores.com/ (http://www.allbookstores.com/)

BookFinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com/)

& what is now Amazon's online search tool...

BiblioFind (http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=299899011)

[Deadlokd]

Bookfinder is excellent. I found a copy for $48 Australian, less than a third of what everyone else was charging.

[godfry n. glad]

Yep...I use it a lot. Along with Alibris and AbeBooks.

I have to, to price out items so I can tell the poor sods who have to replace lost or damaged items how much to expect to have to spend.