FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

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Richard Kaufman
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FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 2nd, 2013, 2:56 pm

I've been waiting a long time to make this announcement, as it completes a vital phase of Genii's online presence and satisfies a commitment I've made to all subscribers.

When you now log on to iGenii at Ask Alexander, and go up to the "Browse" button, click on it. Then click on "Genii," and you'll find that every single issue is now broken out and immediately accessible. No more stepping through whole volumes a page at a time.

This would not have been possible without the technical wizardry of Dan Smith, and the invaluable help of our six volunteers who input the information.

Thanks to all of you, now the rest of you: go have some fun!

http://askalexander.org/login.cgi
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby PapaG » January 2nd, 2013, 3:05 pm

An amazing resource. Many thanks to all those involved in the project.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Matthew Field » January 2nd, 2013, 3:14 pm

Just great!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby JHostler » January 2nd, 2013, 3:15 pm

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby AJM » January 2nd, 2013, 3:16 pm

All I get is a few empty frames when I click on Browse....

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Chris Aguilar » January 2nd, 2013, 3:24 pm

It's working well for me.

One question for Richard.

We (myself and the other volunteers) were also tasked with finding the index page of each issue. Will that information eventually be used in some way so we can jump immediately to the index of each separated issue?

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Joe Pecore » January 2nd, 2013, 4:12 pm

Chris Aguilar wrote:It's working well for me.
We (myself and the other volunteers) were also tasked with finding the index page of each issue. Will that information eventually be used in some way so we can jump immediately to the index of each separated issue?

Yes, it's being worked on now. :)
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Bill Mullins » January 2nd, 2013, 4:15 pm

Chris Aguilar wrote:It's working well for me.

One question for Richard.

We (myself and the other volunteers) were also tasked with finding the index page of each issue. Will that information eventually be used in some way so we can jump immediately to the index of each separated issue?



One of my tricks for navigating is to search for the string "contents" within multi-issue volumes, to home in on particular issues. While that won't be so necessary for Genii, it still is often helpful.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Chris Aguilar » January 2nd, 2013, 4:35 pm

Joe Pecore wrote:
Chris Aguilar wrote:It's working well for me.
We (myself and the other volunteers) were also tasked with finding the index page of each issue. Will that information eventually be used in some way so we can jump immediately to the index of each separated issue?

Yes, it's being worked on now. :)


Fantastic!

For the newer issues, jumping to page 5 normally gets one close to the index (if not directly to it) but having the ability to link directly to the index (hopefully from the "browse" pages) will be stellar.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby AJM » January 2nd, 2013, 5:14 pm

Tried another computer - appears to work on that.

Cheers

Andrew

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 2nd, 2013, 5:32 pm

Shortly Mr. Smith will have created a little doodad that will allow you to jump directly to the table of contents of each issue. It must be remembered that many issues of Genii in (I think) the 1940s and 50s did not have a table of contents! But at least they're easy to look through now.

Again, I have to thank the six guys who did the grunt work. Make sure you contact me to get your goodies.
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Bob Cunningham » January 2nd, 2013, 5:57 pm

This is WONDERFUL!!!!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Chris Aguilar » January 2nd, 2013, 6:08 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Again, I have to thank the six guys who did the grunt work. Make sure you contact me to get your goodies.

I sent my book request (Talisman) and information for subscription extension directly to Margret. Didn't hear back from her, but have been watching my mail.

----

Just noticed the "Table of Contents" link has been added for the separated books. Really makes researching that much easier.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 2nd, 2013, 6:37 pm

Chris, Margret has been out, but I'm sure you'll get the items you requested. Thanks again!
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Ian Kendall » January 2nd, 2013, 6:58 pm

I've just noticed a glitch that I've forwarded on to Jen. It's alarming how easy it is to mistype 583 for 593...

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Dan Smith » January 2nd, 2013, 6:58 pm

As promised.. Alex now displays a link to the table of contents while viewing a document.

While viewing a document with the table of contents identified, this link appears in the information panel:

[img:center]http://askalexander.org/images-public/TOC-link.png[/img]

All the Genii issues should have the table of contents link.

A big THANK YOU is due to the librarians and volunteers at the Conjuring Arts Research Center. These folks catalog the critical details on each document (title, author, publisher, subject matter, pagination, and so on) in this vast library and rallied to quickly catalog the 900+ Genii issues.

Finally, a plug: the library is always looking for helping hands. If you can volunteer some time to catalog media, write help docs, or otherwise improve the site, please contact me.

Enjoy,
Dan Smith

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Chris Aguilar » January 2nd, 2013, 7:00 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:Chris, Margret has been out, but I'm sure you'll get the items you requested. Thanks again!

Figured it might be something like that with the holidays and all. Thanks for the heads up.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Dan Smith » January 2nd, 2013, 7:02 pm

Ian,

The data was remarkably good considering the hundreds of numbers you had to enter.

Thanks!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Ted M » January 2nd, 2013, 7:09 pm

Given the data now available, the Contents page could be copied from each issue to create an omnibus volume containing all the collected Tables of Contents. (I expect they're way ahead of me on this.)

That'd be a glorious aid to browsing!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Dan Smith » January 2nd, 2013, 7:10 pm

Chris Aguilar wrote:We (myself and the other volunteers) were also tasked with finding the index page of each issue. Will that information eventually be used in some way so we can jump immediately to the index of each separated issue?


Chris, you guys also identified the first 'reading page' of each issue, usually the Genii Speaks column. Bonus points for finding how to access that link. :-)

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Dan Smith » January 2nd, 2013, 7:17 pm

Ted,

No plans for a collected TOC. Volunteers welcome!

Would it be useful to be able to search just the tables of contents pages? That'd be a quick way to find all articles on a given subject.

You guys know about using the search modifiers, right?

@author kaufman
@title genii 34
marlo @author racherbaumer
etc..

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Joe Pecore » January 2nd, 2013, 7:32 pm

In case you happen to be on MagicPedia doing research and end up on a page about a specific Genii issues, there may be a link within the right hand side infobox which will take you directly to the Ask Alexander issue: http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Genii_1964_June (Working on adding the infobox to all of them)
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 2nd, 2013, 9:51 pm

Joe, you are a superhuman!
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Alfred » January 3rd, 2013, 5:17 am

Dan Smith wrote: Chris, you guys also identified the first 'reading page' of each issue, usually the Genii Speaks column. Bonus points for finding how to access that link. :-)


When you right click in the information panel a context menu opens. It has three options: "Go to cover", "Table of contents" and "Go to beginning". Is that it?

Being able to access all the issues individually is a great leap forwards. Thanks to everybody involved in the project!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Alfred » January 3rd, 2013, 5:35 am

Ted M wrote:Given the data now available, the Contents page could be copied from each issue to create an omnibus volume containing all the collected Tables of Contents. (I expect they're way ahead of me on this.)

That'd be a glorious aid to browsing!


Sure it would be! However, a comprehensive TOC would require an enormous amount of time. Especially if you want the TOC to be as accurate as possible. Several points would have to be checked for each issue:
  • Some articles/items do not appear in the corresponding issue TOC.
  • Sometimes (very rarely) some article's title in the issue TOC doesn't match the title in the issue.
  • Some page numbers in the issue TOC are not accurate.
  • Some magicians have appeared in the magazine with different names (MagoMigue: Miguel Puga, Dave Forrest: David Forrest...)

Checking all this points is a really tedious work. I know because I did it for all the magazines from 2006 onwards!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Joji Matsuo » January 3rd, 2013, 7:24 am

I notice we also have access to the New Conjurer's Magazine. Thank you for all the extra material.
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby PapaG » January 3rd, 2013, 8:23 am

Just reading the Tamariz issue....

Subscribing to Genii has to be the best deal in magic.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Ted M » January 3rd, 2013, 9:37 am

PapaG wrote:Just reading the Tamariz issue....

Which one?

Jan 1995 ?
Oct 2002 ?
Nov 2010 ?

Thanks to: http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Juan_Tamariz

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Chris Aguilar » January 3rd, 2013, 11:43 am

Joji Matsuo wrote:I notice we also have access to the New Conjurer's Magazine. Thank you for all the extra material.

I believe that has been there from the start.

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 3rd, 2013, 11:53 am

The Genii Corporation owns The Conjurors' Magazine.

Bill Larsen, Sr., bought it from Ed Dart when it folded during volume 7.

That is when "Genii" became "Genii, The Conjurors' Magazine" and that's also why it's available to our subscribers.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby PapaG » January 3rd, 2013, 12:11 pm

Ted M wrote:
PapaG wrote:Just reading the Tamariz issue....

Which one?

Jan 1995 ?
Oct 2002 ?
Nov 2010 ?

Thanks to: http://geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Juan_Tamariz


2002 - the one with the trick from Flamenco...

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Oddly Bent » January 4th, 2013, 6:15 pm

Will any of the issues ever be downloadable?

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Richard Kaufman » January 4th, 2013, 7:13 pm

You can download individual pages now, or print them out. But you can only print so many before the automatic pirate-detector kicks in. (The folks at Ask Alexander call it "scarfing," which I assume is an internet term.)

We don't want anyone downloading entire volumes.

But feel freel to print out an article now and then. That's fine.
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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby J-Mac » January 5th, 2013, 1:28 am

Thanks to all involved in this massive bit of work! It is very much appreciated!

Jim

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Nickle » January 9th, 2013, 7:45 pm

This is great!! Thank you!

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Re: FINALLY! All Genii Back Issues Can Now Be Accessed Individually

Postby Andres Reynoso » January 10th, 2013, 11:23 am

Just great!!!! Now is very easy to surf on the Genii File. I have found things that didn't imagine were there. Even to watch an interesting cover invites to open the issue and review it.

Is very interesting the new function to view in pdf, html or txt, I prefer the traditional pdf but is good to have more options. There is too a new translate tool that can make things easier for some people.

And the table of content is so usefull

than you very much!!!!!
Andres Reynoso


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