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BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a concise and precise printed format
providing ever-changeable literary, numerical and encoded parts to
identify articles of printed works in newspapers, magazines and the like.
In general, the basic elements in the format may include a variety of
contents and arrangements. For example, a preferred format may consist of:
(a) a complete date and a relative subject index number in both ordinary
numerical or alpha-numerical and encoded form; (b) the name of the writer
or source of the article; and (c) the name of the publication containing
the article. The format can be read manually or electronically. Unlike
television or radio, which is only seen and heard, this novel idea offers
the file-builder the option to manually clip and file or electronically
scan and store articles of printed works.
Heretofore, the writer's name or source of the article and the publisher of
an article may have been known and shown, but the combination of the
writer's name or source of the article and the publication name were not
linked together with a complete date and a relative subject index number
on every article appearing in the publication. Since objects like
newspaper articles can be gathered together into classes, the challenge is
to separate like objects from unlike objects based upon their individual
characteristics. This invention identifies and classifies articles of
printed works by, at a minimum, the author and publication. It is
preferred however, to also include a complete date and a relative subject
index number. This combined classification unambiguously identifies every
article of printed works. Furthermore, the methodology herein serves to
educate our youth in library skills and practices, and teaches a system of
how to collect and build a personal reference file of knowledge.
To the best of my knowledge, no prior article identification system as
described herein exists, based upon my following findings:
(A) In museums and libraries, spanning 153 years of newspaper and
magazines, my study and analysis show no indication of this invention ever
being in practice;
(B) Concurrently, my research led to a study of magazines. Here I found
that some magazines had a date and publication name on the bottom of each
page. However, no identity was noted on the article itself, and the
articles did not make any reference to a relative subject index numbering
system;
(C) Thirty-nine current U.S.A. newspapers from nine states and from
coast-to-coast and border-to-border, plus five foreign newspapers from
Canada, England, France, Germany and Italy were completely void of an
article-by-article dating and relative subject indexing number system; and
(D) Just by coincidence, two recent television programs, "60 Minutes" and
"CBS Evening News", showed an isolated and undated newspaper article which
had to be supported and reinforced by the publication's masthead and
masthead's date to prove a relationship existed between the article and
masthead. It took this two-step process to prove their point. There still
leaves a doubt in the viewer's mind that the article truly came from that
specific masthead but to further prove it would be very timely and costly.
This invention provides a tool to a very large number of people who desire
to construct personal files in every imaginable field of human endeavor by
clipping or copying articles from newspapers, magazines, journals and
other printed works, and/or by electronically accessing such information
from available data bases. These works, with an array of personal topics,
can be relatively indexed with reasonably good match-ups to individual
interest of students, housewives, scientists, engineers, librarians,
writers, lawyers, office workers and so on, to maintain private (physical
or electronic) files so as to keep track of events, developments, persons
and etc. Such files provide a compact store of documents that can be
organized to meet the needs of individuals, small organizations, small
businesses, small libraries or even a laboratory. Files are organized in
various ways, for example, by a date or a broad subject name;
alternatively, an index is developed using one or more of the systematic
descriptive bibliographic elements that are used in documentation to
identify items on file.
The date of publication of a document is one of the identifying elements
that is universally employed to file and locate documents. Publishers of
newspapers, magazines and the like have not addressed the needs of file
builders, nor have they provided means for these people to have a complete
and accurate date and/or relative subject index classification number on
every article.
Newspapers, magazines and the like carry a number of entries to identify
the year, volume, issue, date and etc. However, the individual items
comprising these published works, do not have associated with each
sufficient bibliographic information to precisely identify each from the
moment it takes on a separate existence of its own when it is clipped from
the page in which:
(A) it appeared at the time of original publication; or
(B) when it is copied to become a new document; or
(C) when a unit of information is separated from other items on a page of
the original document.
In nearly all cases the complete date of publication is lost unless that
complete date is entered manually on the clipping or photo-copy. That
action, if it is remembered at all, is subject to human error. An undated
or erroneously dated clipping or copy loses much of its value.
"Finding" or identifying information of some kind is always associated with
each article in printed works. The identifying information may include
descriptive title, the source, place of publication, author's name(s),
affiliation of the author(s), etc. The date of publication is almost
always absent. The importance of the date of publication in filing,
organizing and locating material of interest is well recognized by
librarians, archivists and documentalists. This invention introduces into
the world of publication, the use of the publication date as a key piece
of information in a format that associates it with each article. A variety
of formats are proposed that provide a small and dedicated area,
preferably but not necessarily at the front end or beginning of each
article. The preferred format will include the publication's complete date
as an integral part of the article, and associated with other identifying
information. More specifically, each article will, consist of a unit
comprising the verbal and/or graphic message(s) with its own identifying
information including the publication's complete date, the author's name
and a relative subject index classification number. For enabling
electronic reading of all or part of the information, a machine readable
code (such as a bar code) may be provided.
While the format including all of the above noted information is preferred,
it will be appreciated that the invention encompasses formats which
include a range of information for each article as follows:
1) author name and publisher name;
2) author name, publisher name and complete date;
3) author name, publisher name and relative subject index number; and
4) author name, publisher name, complete date and relative subject matter
index number. All of the above may be supplemented by machine readable
code.
With present day computer and photo-based composing technology, creating a
flexible format to include the publication's complete date and an encoded
relative subject index number with every article is inexpensive and within
the reach of all publishers. The publication's complete date may be
printed in ordinary numerical form or in alpha-numerical form. The font
selected may be designed for easy manual reading and machine reading
(employing character recognition technology). Digital data can be
generated directly from the date record and other elements of the
article's relative subject index number for entry into a computer based
index. The publication date may also be encoded in a variety of ways such
as bar codes, diffractional patterns and the like which would be generated
by computer and printed as machine readable characters in the area
dedicated to the identifying information.
I have found, as a general rule and practice, there are two, but not
limited to two, relative classifications systems such as:
(A) the internationally recognized Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) which
is used in personal and small public libraries:
(B) and the United States Library of Congress Classifications (LCC) which
is used by large general libraries, small public libraries and special
libraries. Both the (DDC) and (LCC) systems are up-dated frequently to
provide provisions for new subjects and latest terminology; plus
anticipate fundamental changes.
The subject index number in the format will be assigned by the publisher or
writer-classifier and originate from DDC, (LCC) or like indexing system.
However, for present day cost-effective and practical reasons, but not
limited in scope as to how many subject index numbers and digits may be
used in a system, this invention now teaches that a three digit subject
index number, without subdivision numbers, is doable now. One typical way
the writer can generate a subject index number is:
(A) Determine the subject's name or theme of the article.
(B) Now, using the (DDC)'s alphabetical table of "Relative Indexes" by
subjects, seek out the best match-up between the subject's name and the
relative subject index number.
(C) Now, armed with the best relative subject index number, that is thought
to be the best match-up between the subject's name and the index number
from the alphabetical table, the last step is to verify the above index
number with the "Third Summery" Section of a (DDC) reference book which
contains 999 relative subject index numbers. With 999 subjects to
"call-on" or "call-up", this reduced (DDC) system provides enough relative
subject index numbers for small collections. However, the
writer-classifier and the file-builder have the option to further
subdivide classes, by adding more digits, to fit their needs. Once the
relative subject index number and its encoded form appears in the format,
it can be read manually and/or electronically by the user. Further details
can be referenced in the TWELFTH Abridged. Edition of the (DDC) book
published by the Forest Press Inc., Lake Placid, N.Y.
With these in-place library tools and existing computer developments, the
introduction of a format in accordance with this invention into
newspapers, magazines and the like, that associates the publication's
complete date with each article, will allow one to generate computer-based
indexes with the publication date serving as a vital component linking the
index number with the document store which may be based on paper,
microfilm or video media. This gathering of article identity and
information is not limited to just printed works but also electronic works
generated by electronic newspapers or television (or by scanning printed
works into an electronic data base) which can be accessed through modems
by computer users.
With regard to electronic publishing, it should also be noted that this
invention may be incorporated into the Standard Generalized Markup
Language (SGML) currently being developed by publishers. This is a
standardized format for labeling various elements in an electronic
document to facilitate indexing, searching, etc.
The potential uses of this invention are varied. For example, publishers
can generate revenues and provide a community service as follows:
1. Since publishers and their affiliates own what they print, they can
develop a regional in-house electronic clipping service each month to
organizations who need article documentation and subject trend analysis.
Typical users of this personalized service would be:
a. Municipalities (City/County/State).
b. Institutions (Colleges/Hospitals/Banks).
c. Libraries (Public/College/Private).
d. Businesses (Tourism/Realtors/Car & Boat Dealers and etc).
2. A private company (not a publisher) could also perform a similar
clipping service to the above sales targets providing all parties
(Publisher+Clipper+Buyer) adhere to copyright laws.
3. Revenues can also materialize through custom index numbers generated for
advertizers of display and to track and correlate sales
category-by-category and subdivisions like footwear
(Girls/Boys/Ladies/Men) or computer goods and its wide range of
subdivisions.
4. The invention serves to educate youth in library skills and practices,
and teaches a system of how to collect and build a personal reference file
of knowledge. This on-going process exists between the
Article-Writer-Classifier and the Article-File-Builder by interacting with
the format's elements to focus upon the joint mission to unambiguously
identify articles of printed works. Since "Knowledge is Power" (Sr.
Francis Bacon/1605), this invention will further prepare students to live
in the information age.
5. Unlike television or radio, which is briefly seen and heard, this
invention provides the publisher's general readership the option to
manually clip and file or electronically scan and store accurately
identified articles of printed works.
6. Also, the publishers themselves can save money in-house by eliminating
manual clipping systems which would save time and save the space occupied
by the back issues, sub-files and clutter.
In its broader aspects, therefore, the present invention relates to a mass
distributable print media substrate containing at least one article on a
page, the at least one article including a title and related text, the
improvement comprising printed information including at least the author
and publication name in close proximity to the at least one article.
In its preferred form, the printed information also includes the complete
publication date and a relative subject matter index number, along with
machine readable encoding.
Additional objects and advantages will become apparent from the detailed
description which follows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 illustrates a group of seven rectangular formats (but not limited to
seven, nor to a rectangular design) exhibiting a variety of contents and
arrangements which lend clarity to the identity of printed works.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
With reference to FIG. 1, seven alternative formats for identifying
articles in printed works are shown. In each, reference numerals are
employed as follows:
a. All [8'] refer to the name of the writer or source of the article;
b. All [9'] refer to the publication (publisher) name;
c. The [10] refers to a combination line consisting of the complete date
and an A.I.TM. mark to indicate origin of the service;
d. The [11] refers to a bar code for the complete date and A-I.TM.;
e. The [12] refers to a combination line consisting of the DDC relative
subject index number and A.I.TM.;
f. The [13] refers to a bar code for the A.I.TM. and the DDC relative
subject index number.
g. The [14] refers to a combination line consisting of the complete date,
A.I.TM. and the DDC relative subject index number; and
h. The [15] refers to a bar code for the complete date, A-I.TM. and the DDC
relative subject index number.
In the first format, the author or writer's name 8 is shown above the
publisher name 9. This information would typically appear just below the
title of the article, in the space between the article name and the
article itself. The information may be enclosed in a "box" as shown but it
need not be so enclosed.
In the second format, additional information 10 is provided in the form of
the complete date of the article along with a trademark or service mark
indicating the origin of the service.
In the third format, information over and above that which is included in
the second format is provided in the form of a bar code 11 which permits
electronic reading of the information otherwise referred to by reference
numeral (and, optionally, the information referred to by reference
numerals 8 and 9 as well).
In the fourth format, items of information 8 and 9 correspond to the
information provided in format 1, and in addition, a DDC code 12 is
provided along with the service mark.
Format 5 is similar to format 4 with the exception that a bar code 13 is
added to permit machine reading of the information otherwise indicated by
reference numeral 12 (and, optionally, reference numerals 8 and 9),
In format 6, items of information 8 and 9 are provided in the manner
illustrated in format 1 and, in addition, information 14 is provided in
the form of a complete date, a service mark, and the DDC relative subject
index number.
Format 7 is similar to format 6 with the exception that a bar code 15 is
added which enables machine reading of the information otherwise
designated by reference numeral 14 (and, optionally, reference numerals 8
and 9).
The drawings and designs herein show exemplary format(s) and it will be
appreciated that the invention is not limited in content and arrangement
to the specific examples shown. The appearance can be rectangular, oval
and the like and, as already noted, with or without and the like and, as
already noted, with or without borders. The width shown herein is
approximately two inches so as to fit a currently conventional two inch
wide newspaper and magazine columns, but the arrangement may be varied as
desired. Since the column height represents true space and conspicuous
consumption of area, the drawings show three and four line comparisons.
The three line format shows it would be adequate for manual reading and
clipping now. The four line format shows an alpha-numerical bar code which
offers the file-builder the option to manually clip and file or
electronically scan and store articles of printed works with clear
identity.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently
considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be
understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed
embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various
modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and
scope of the appended claims.
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