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December 18, 2004 BugPeople BugByte News by Eddie Dunbar |
Lake Merritt Insect Field
Guide
We really didn't give all that we should in the launch of Lake Merritt and
Greater Oakland Insects as a paperback guide. There were problems with the
printer. Also, I was concerned with print quality. Now, I think we've gotten
the quirks worked out and we've got a pretty decent quality of print. The
printed guide just became available again. We are taking another handful of copies
down to the City of Oakland's Rotary Nature Center tomorrow. Also, we've
applied for an ISBN#. That number will be available
shortly.
CD-ROM version. Even with the success in generating the paperback,
we still decided some months ago that it would be best to take the guide
to the next level, and to publish it as an eBook. We are toying with the
possibility that we might make the eBook available for a limited few who
might work with us as beta testers.
Format. We looked at a lot of possibilities. We felt that Adobe Acrobat
provided the best format overall. Acrobat Reader is available for both Macs
and PCs. It is easy to use, offers built-in search and capabilities, and
it is pretty well-known. Downsides are that Acrobat is somewhat memory intensive.
Also, we are experiencing slowness in navigating pages when running the eBook
on CD-ROM. Adobe will soon launch Acrobat 7. We hoope the newer version will
resolve the slowness issue by release time.
Virtual Field Guide. For those who can get to Lake Merritt, we have
placed a display at the Nature Center. About 60% of the book is there. Stephanie
Benavidez has been a good partner throughout out attempt to get this guide
out.
Feedback. Every successful organization relies on feedback. Whether you're thinking about supporting us or you've been a supporter in the past by attending a presentation or purchasing a book or CD, we'd like to hear from you.
Seasons greetings to all of you. And a prosperous new year!
P.S. Guides are available at:
The Rotary Nature Center
(510) 238-3739
Eddie Dunbar
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