Re: Some info on pagination practices

Hi

There are also some advantages with aligning numberOfPages with the Book 
Publisher version ("208" in Karen's example)  instead of the Library 
version ("xiv, 178"):

1. The numberOfPages property currently expects an integer, which is 
provided in all standard publishing industry data formats (e.g. Onix)

2. A simple integer value, such as the one used by Book Publishers, is 
easily programmatically usable - e.g. as a "sort" value or a filter when 
searching through data, whereas a string value such as "xiv, 178" is not 
usable for those operations without the additional calculations (explode 
the string at the comma, convert the first value from roman numerals to 
arabic, and add to the second value to produce an integer value that can 
be used).

In the interest of full disclosure: I work for an academic publishing 
company, although my opinions posted on this list are my own.

Paul

On 16/12/13 19:01, Thad Guidry wrote:
> Thanks Karen.
>
> Do others feel that the http://schema.org/numberOfPages property could 
> be aligned with one of the practices and the definition tightened up 
> to match one of them ?
>
> My slight preference is the library one.  Where even my daughter would 
> know and use numbered pages and flip to the last numbered page and use 
> that on this property.  I personally thought that was the use for this 
> property =  a numbered pages total.
>
> Thoughts ?
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Karen Coyle <kcoyle@kcoyle.net 
> <mailto:kcoyle@kcoyle.net>> wrote:
>
>     Thad asked me to re-post this from the schema-bibEx group to this
>     list,
>     presumably relating to a discussion here:
>
>         Note also that the "page count" that publishers give to books is a
>         physical count -- the actual number of sheets of paper x 2. The
>         publisher knows this because he paid the printer for them. The
>         page
>         count that a library gives is the number on the highest
>         numbered page
>         (of each pagination type), which is what is visible and readily
>         available (without having to sit and count the pages). Here
>         are two
>         "pages" statements for the same book:
>
>         publisher: 208 pages
>
>     >
>
>         library: xiv, 178 p. (which does not add up to
>         208 because blank pages aren't counted)
>
>         So those are two other community practices that each is perfectly
>         logical but will give different results. And note that it is
>         probably
>         the publisher number of pages that is currently in
>         schema.org/Book <http://schema.org/Book>.
>
>         kc
>
>
>
>     -- 
>     Karen Coyle
>     kcoyle@kcoyle.net <mailto:kcoyle@kcoyle.net> http://kcoyle.net
>     m: 1-510-435-8234 <tel:1-510-435-8234>
>     skype: kcoylenet
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> -Thad
> +ThadGuidry <https://www.google.com/+ThadGuidry>
> Thad on LinkedIn <http://www.linkedin.com/in/thadguidry/>


-- 
Paul

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