Indexing Collections of OldMagazine

[vibrac]

I have about 40 years of bike monthly magazines and although Vincents are my main interest every time a new old bike or a sporting action falls into my area of interest i have a look in the mags for some input. Now there used to be an index of I think it was classic bike on the web by someone (dont laugh) called pig farmer or some such, however that has gone and I cant even find it on the way back machine.
Obviously an index of past contents by date or issue would be a godsend to holders of old mags (I suppose not provided by the publishers as they perhaps like to republish 30 year old stories again) I did just stick a picture of a front cover on a web site that rendered all the text in readable form and I suppose would also do that to the index page so it is within the realms of do-ability I wondered if anyone out there knew of such an index or indexes?
PS sorry about the title but how else can I get this read?

 

[Magnetoman]

Obviously an index of past contents by date or issue would be a godsend to holders of old mags

I have a time-tested solution to that problem, that combines the benefits of simultaneously being time-consuming as well as imperfect.

I have complete sets of something like a dozen magazines, a few dating back more than 70 years. Taking 50 years as an average age, that's 50yrs×12mags×12pg/mag=7200 individual issues, so those magazines contain a huge amount of information (and misinformation…). However, that information would be useless if I couldn't find it, so indexing is essential.

Without going into all the details, and taking 'Classic Bike' and 'The Classic Motorcycle' as contemporary examples, every few years I haul a pile to my copier/scanner of the ones that arrived since my last indexing episode. I photocopy the 'content' pages of each issue in chronological order, then use the sheet feeder to scan and OCR them. Following that, I quickly edit the results and then copy/paste the contents of those files to the separate indexes I maintain for each. I could skip the photocopying stage, but it's faster to do it the way I do since the OCR step takes a bit of time. Plus, the pile of photocopies is faster to refer to when I have questions during editing about words the OCR had stumbled over. The resulting formatting can be a little odd, and extraneous information slips through, but since it's only for me, the aesthetics of the layout as well as the irrelevant information are, well, irrelevant. Ignoring all the time I spent up to this point to create indexes for those dozen magazines, each new indexing session only takes an hour or so every few years.

Unfortunately, some magazine editors are too clever to provide simple, accurate titles for articles, and not all relevant content in a given magazine may be listed on the 'content' page, so my way of indexing is imperfect. Still, creating completely comprehensive indexes would require a lot more time, and the indexes I have are way better than not having any index at all.

I should add that I don't do this just to keep myself busy. I actually use these indexes for some of my writing. Just locating and/or fact checking information for 'The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire' alone repaid a good fraction of the time I had spent creating all of these indexes.

Amazon.com

 

[royrobertson]

Hi Tim, you are not alone, I have copies of a fair number of the mainstream motorcycle mags boxed in year order going back to 1964. The short lived Classic Legends being one of my favourites. I was just recently researching a particular bike and using by Google, found the mags that featured it. I then went to the loft and found all 18 of the magazines. I wish there had been a comprehensive index but the ones in the early Classic Bike helped.
roy the racer

 

[Albervin]

I laugh in your faces!! (LOL). I have editions of Motorcycling and The Motorcycle dating back to the 1920s. One issue per week !!! Probably close to 2,000 magazines. Except for the "Show" and "TT" editions they are quite slim but they pack a lot into them. I also collected Classic Bike, Classic Motorcycle,Classic Racer and Classic Mechanics for a decade or so. A monster of my own creation.

 

[vibrac]

Ah
Its not the amount its the accessibility that matters
I am loathe to reinvent the wheel if it already exists hence my thread

 

[Albervin]

I have a time-tested solution to that problem, that combines the benefits of simultaneously being time-consuming as well as imperfect.

I have complete sets of something like a dozen magazines, a few dating back more than 70 years. Taking 50 years as an average age, that's 50yrs×12mags×12pg/mag=7200 individual issues, so those magazines contain a huge amount of information (and misinformation…). However, that information would be useless if I couldn't find it, so indexing is essential.

Without going into all the details, and taking 'Classic Bike' and 'The Classic Motorcycle' as contemporary examples, every few years I haul a pile to my copier/scanner of the ones that arrived since my last indexing episode. I photocopy the 'content' pages of each issue in chronological order, then use the sheet feeder to scan and OCR them. Following that, I quickly edit the results and then copy/paste the contents of those files to the separate indexes I maintain for each. I could skip the photocopying stage, but it's faster to do it the way I do since the OCR step takes a bit of time. Plus, the pile of photocopies is faster to refer to when I have questions during editing about words the OCR had stumbled over. The resulting formatting can be a little odd, and extraneous information slips through, but since it's only for me, the aesthetics of the layout as well as the irrelevant information are, well, irrelevant. Ignoring all the time I spent up to this point to create indexes for those dozen magazines, each new indexing session only takes an hour or so every few years.

Unfortunately, some magazine editors are too clever to provide simple, accurate titles for articles, and not all relevant content in a given magazine may be listed on the 'content' page, so my way of indexing is imperfect. Still, creating completely comprehensive indexes would require a lot more time, and the indexes I have are way better than not having any index at all.

I should add that I don't do this just to keep myself busy. I actually use these indexes for some of my writing. Just locating and/or fact checking information for 'The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire' alone repaid a good fraction of the time I had spent creating all of these indexes.

Amazon.com

Both of Charles' and Ultan's books are Gold. I attended their Brisbane exhibition and was amazed at the diversity.

 

[Albervin]

Ah
Its not the amount its the accessibility that matters
I am loathe to reinvent the wheel if it already exists hence my thread

Indeed. There used to be an annual index for various magazines (indices) but that stopped. Searching always involves various parameters. Do you know the year? Great. NO!! Not good. The model? I think so... that narrows it down.. etc. Currently I am in the process of moving residence and ALL my magazines are in boxes labelled 19.. to 19.. or 20... to ? The Dewey system is the answer and I do know a person who has his library in the Dewey system.

 

[Magnetoman]

I am loathe to reinvent the wheel if it already exists hence my thread

Half of information is knowing where to find it. Knowing the information I need is somewhere in one of the bookcases full of magazines isn't knowing where to find it. An index is. My 'The Gold Star Buyer's Companion' lists approximately 200 articles on Gold Stars from 16 magazines from 1951 through December 2022. Try creating such a list without a computerized index.

The Gold Star Buyer's Companion: Falco, Charles M: 9798218168704: Amazon.com: Books

The Gold Star Buyer's Companion [Falco, Charles M] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Gold Star Buyer's Companion

amzn.to

Some years ago I was in a train station in Moscow, to catch a train to Rybinsk (it's a long story…). Knowing that the information I needed on track and car was in front of me was useless. I needed an (English-language) index.

Moscow has nine train stations, and it's not like English is the lingua Franca of Russians, so I don't remember how I even got to the right station, let alone on the right train. Or in the right car, rather than in a section that might have later separated and been taken to Vladivostock.

Back to magazines. Two major U.S. magazines were indexed by a service my university subscribed to, so that was a major help in getting my indexes started sometime in the 1990s. Also, in the early days of the internet someone posted an index of Classic Bike and The Classic Motor Cycle articles up to that time, which also was a big help. However, to quote the owner of a used bookstore when I asked if he had anything on motorcycles, "Motorcyclists don't read." To the extent his generalization is true, there would be very few people who combine the interest and ability to create indexes for motorcycle magazines, significantly decreasing the odds of finding an existing list, let alone one that's on-line.

 

[BigEd]

Not a solution for everyone but this is what I have done.
I am in a few motorcycle clubs so I get or have access to the publications that come with my subscription. Magazines from the clubs I look to find things of interest, usually not much, make a note of any important dates and then dump them. Some are digital subscriptions that I can download and store in a folder on my computer. These are searchable so I have a better chance of finding something. Friends who have classic magazines that they pass on to me so that I can read them if I want to. Most classic/vintage magazines are regurgitating the same old thing, e.g. rebuilding or road testing a nineteen hundred and frozen-to-death "XYZ" model ???, so I rarely find much that I can be bothered to read, plus the standard of writing is generally poor. I will quickly look through these magazines and If I find an article of interest I keep that by adding it to a (reasonably) small pile. The rest I dump or pass on to someone else. This reduces the number of magazines to sort through. I do buy one classic magazine. It is one that usually has articles that I find interesting and it means I have something to pass on to people who have given me magazines.
I used to have piles of dusty old motorcycle magazines that had not moved in decades so I moved them to the bin.
Lots of information can be found on the internet these days by doing a bit of work with your web browser or you can ask questions on forums like this excellent one, get several answers and quite likely the one you are looking for.
I will admit to having a shelf with binders of "Motorcycle Sport" magazine from the 1960's to 1970's when I cancelled it as it started to go downhill.

 

[vibrac]

You are right about motorcycle sport that needs no index 1960-70 always a good re-read
Trouble is the day I throw magazines without interest away another bike I wasn't interested in yesterday becomes of interest today...
EG a 250 ducati for my grandson
(Oh and something else I am looking for i wont mention as there are not many around)