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Lynx Edicions - What Next ? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Pet
- Start date
It is (especially now) rare enough that I am in the US that Kaufman will have to do B
Niels
Melanie
Well-known member
The older field guides (as of 2019, e.g. Birds of Vietnam) should be rereleased as soon as possible because the QR Codes (formerly linked to HBW.com) did not working properly anymore. They link to the main page of the Macaulay Library but not to the particular birds species. If you take e.g. Birds of the Philippines they link to eBird.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
This was always, bound to happen eventually.
Should be possible to remap the links. Question is if anyone feels strongly enough to field the cost of doing so. As Lynx are the ones putting the QR codes in, I feel they should be responsible for upholding the system.
Niels
pbjosh
missing the neotropics
Indeed the QR codes are a very divisive choice, and I would personally say that the fact that they don't work after 1 year should serve as a good indication of why.
Personally I greatly dislike them and would never use them and would prefer guide books to avoid extraneous clutter of this sort.
Personally I greatly dislike them and would never use them and would prefer guide books to avoid extraneous clutter of this sort.
RafaelMatias
Unknown member
I dislike them as well. A field guide is for me a package of relatively permanent knowledge, while a QR code is anything but permanent. They subtract value to the field guide IMO and make of them some kind of discardable tool.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
These comments should be fed back to Lynx.
James Eaton
Trent Valley Crew
Vietnam and Thailand QR scans still work fine for me, and Lynx and Cornell have confirmed with me they'll be of continual use when I've asked in the past when reviewing field guides. Perhaps it's ones where the taxonomy has changed and so links back to the homepage? If so, that would make perfect sense to do so until they've had time to redirect the code to the correct page.
QR scans are one of the many arbitrary likes or dislikes of a field guide. For me, I've really enjoyed using them and add an extra layer of information that other field guides lack. They take up so little space they can just be ignored, so even if you have such disdain for them, no big problem.
James
QR scans are one of the many arbitrary likes or dislikes of a field guide. For me, I've really enjoyed using them and add an extra layer of information that other field guides lack. They take up so little space they can just be ignored, so even if you have such disdain for them, no big problem.
James
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The problem is not just personal preference, but as had been mentioned above, how much of an impression of a discardable item books should come with.
jurek
Well-known member
Anybody guess, how many years before children will look at these QR codes and ask: daddy, what it is?
IMO, if you have a reliable smartphone and an internet connection, why bother with the book at all? Get an app, and don't carry paper around. It is fully possible, that in 10 years, things will go further: growth of amateur bird photos and possibility of copying texts make paid bird guidebooks obsolete. Just like few people buy paper road atlas.
IMO, if you have a reliable smartphone and an internet connection, why bother with the book at all? Get an app, and don't carry paper around. It is fully possible, that in 10 years, things will go further: growth of amateur bird photos and possibility of copying texts make paid bird guidebooks obsolete. Just like few people buy paper road atlas.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Get out of this house, Philistine!!!Anybody guess, how many years before children will look at these QR codes and ask: daddy, what it is?
IMO, if you have a reliable smartphone and an internet connection, why bother with the book at all? Get an app, and don't carry paper around. It is fully possible, that in 10 years, things will go further: growth of amateur bird photos and possibility of copying texts make paid bird guidebooks obsolete. Just like few people buy paper road atlas.
This has been discussed many times, 'tech', has it's limitations in that it can fail altogether or you may have no ability to charge your device, no internet connection and any amount of other technical glitches etc, etc. Short of actually losing your book, hard copy is infallible.
Coming back to original topic, here is a very interesting story on how it all started :
https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural/20200913/483451212474/handbook-sargatal-josep-del-hoyo.html
Using Google Translate, some paragraphs (about history of HBW) reads something like this :
"Before embarking on this project, Sargatal, together with Josep del Hoyo, visited various publishing houses to propose the publication of the encyclopedia. The answer was always the same -A 16-volume bird encyclopedia in English? Already… The answers avoided putting qualifiers, probably because the interlocutors had to think that the word "madness" was not very descriptive; that did not realize the size of the proposed daring. They even went to a very important English publisher. "If this has not been done by an Englishman, it is impossible"; They told them.
Sargatal and Del Hoyo stared at each other with a single thought: the same. And so the idea of promoting this encyclopedic guide came to mind, although there was a downside: they didn't have the money for it. Sargatal was at that time director of the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà natural park, and he knew the lawyer Ramon Mascort, who had bought some land to create a campsite in the area. - I called him and in 15 days he put the money to create the publishing house - explains Sargatal. The creation of the publishing house was previously gestated in long conversations with Josep del Hoyo, who convinced Sargatal that they should make the book. It was he who made contact with Ramon Mascort.
“On the first day Mascort put on the table the money necessary to create the Lynx publishing house, knowing that he would never get it back. It was 1989, and it was a lot of money. The agreement was that he would be the main owner of the shares and we, that is, Josep del Hoyo and I, would also have a stake. Mascort, therefore, is the businessman who puts the money to make Lynx Ediciones work and who has made it possible to make this manual so famous and fantastic”
So, basically they off course had a real passion on making something extra ordinary but "they didn't have the money for it" was the real issue back then.
Even today, i am 100% sure if Lynx Edicions approaches to any ultra-wealthy individual or a billionaire who shares the passion of natural world along with its conservation, then the works like, Handbook of the Amphibians of the World (HAW), Handbook of the Reptiles of the World (HRW), Handbook of the Fishes of the World (HFW), Handbook of the Invertebrates (Arachnids & Insects) of the World (HIW) and so on is something which is quite possible and i am again 100% sure Lynx Edicions itself has a same vision and passion today, as much as it was back then.
Its all about marketing and how Lynx Edicions approaches to any ultra-wealthy individual or any organization, like, Amancio Ortega Foundation with their vision for future.
Also, just like Lynx Edicions has worked together with Birdlife International, Fundació Mascort and Global Wildlife Conservation for their HBW and HMW series, they can also share similar partnership with organizations like, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) and similar others.
For, Handbook of the Fishes of the World (HFW), they can have partnership with Professor Guillermo Orti :
https://www.gwhatchet.com/2016/02/10/team-of-researchers-to-classify-35000-species-of-fish/
Or with some ocean conservation organizations.
For, Handbook of the Invertebrates (Arachnids & Insects) of the World (HIW), there are many invertebrate conservation organizations who would love to support these extra ordinary works.
Who would have thought some 30 years ago that in 2020 there would be a single book with a title "All the Birds of the World" that will for the first time in history of book publishing will be describing and illustrating every single species of bird present in our world in a single volume ? !!!
Just considering the extra ordinary story of HBW, we can conclude that if you have a real passion and a vision, Nothing is Impossible !
https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural/20200913/483451212474/handbook-sargatal-josep-del-hoyo.html
Using Google Translate, some paragraphs (about history of HBW) reads something like this :
"Before embarking on this project, Sargatal, together with Josep del Hoyo, visited various publishing houses to propose the publication of the encyclopedia. The answer was always the same -A 16-volume bird encyclopedia in English? Already… The answers avoided putting qualifiers, probably because the interlocutors had to think that the word "madness" was not very descriptive; that did not realize the size of the proposed daring. They even went to a very important English publisher. "If this has not been done by an Englishman, it is impossible"; They told them.
Sargatal and Del Hoyo stared at each other with a single thought: the same. And so the idea of promoting this encyclopedic guide came to mind, although there was a downside: they didn't have the money for it. Sargatal was at that time director of the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà natural park, and he knew the lawyer Ramon Mascort, who had bought some land to create a campsite in the area. - I called him and in 15 days he put the money to create the publishing house - explains Sargatal. The creation of the publishing house was previously gestated in long conversations with Josep del Hoyo, who convinced Sargatal that they should make the book. It was he who made contact with Ramon Mascort.
“On the first day Mascort put on the table the money necessary to create the Lynx publishing house, knowing that he would never get it back. It was 1989, and it was a lot of money. The agreement was that he would be the main owner of the shares and we, that is, Josep del Hoyo and I, would also have a stake. Mascort, therefore, is the businessman who puts the money to make Lynx Ediciones work and who has made it possible to make this manual so famous and fantastic”
So, basically they off course had a real passion on making something extra ordinary but "they didn't have the money for it" was the real issue back then.
Even today, i am 100% sure if Lynx Edicions approaches to any ultra-wealthy individual or a billionaire who shares the passion of natural world along with its conservation, then the works like, Handbook of the Amphibians of the World (HAW), Handbook of the Reptiles of the World (HRW), Handbook of the Fishes of the World (HFW), Handbook of the Invertebrates (Arachnids & Insects) of the World (HIW) and so on is something which is quite possible and i am again 100% sure Lynx Edicions itself has a same vision and passion today, as much as it was back then.
Its all about marketing and how Lynx Edicions approaches to any ultra-wealthy individual or any organization, like, Amancio Ortega Foundation with their vision for future.
Also, just like Lynx Edicions has worked together with Birdlife International, Fundació Mascort and Global Wildlife Conservation for their HBW and HMW series, they can also share similar partnership with organizations like, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) and similar others.
For, Handbook of the Fishes of the World (HFW), they can have partnership with Professor Guillermo Orti :
https://www.gwhatchet.com/2016/02/10/team-of-researchers-to-classify-35000-species-of-fish/
Or with some ocean conservation organizations.
For, Handbook of the Invertebrates (Arachnids & Insects) of the World (HIW), there are many invertebrate conservation organizations who would love to support these extra ordinary works.
Who would have thought some 30 years ago that in 2020 there would be a single book with a title "All the Birds of the World" that will for the first time in history of book publishing will be describing and illustrating every single species of bird present in our world in a single volume ? !!!
Just considering the extra ordinary story of HBW, we can conclude that if you have a real passion and a vision, Nothing is Impossible !
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From Lynx Edicions Newsletter :
""After 32 years of hard work and dedication, the Founders of Lynx Edicions have decided to pass the publishing house on to new leaders who will continue to build on their strong foundation. Two current members of the Lynx team have accepted this challenge enthusiastically, creating a book publication services company, named Alada ("winged"). Alada will provide services to Lynx Edicions, including the management of Lynx’s complete collection of titles and the publication of new books with the Lynx name, logo and high standards. Thanks to Alada, the various Lynx book collections will continue to grow and other new titles will be developed in line with Lynx’s current trajectory.""
Seems like, Alada will launch some new mega projects ???
Seems like, Alada will launch some new mega projects ???
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I think Alada will launch their own new website, hence the name and logo that is created for this purpose.
On other hand, as Lynx Eds has ended all their publications under their name, hence nothing on their 'coming soon' page.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
sicklebill
well-known Cretaceous relic
I had hoped there would be some special offers and details of forthcoming titles come July 1 when the new team took over the Lynx portfolio, I live in hope still.
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