General
As far as humanly possible, I have made all the files comply with the text in the books that they were scanned from. Be warned though that I am only human and there may be some errors that I have introduced to texts as I have scanned and proofread them. If you find any errors or possible errors please contact me.
There are a few places that I have corrected some obvious errors in modern texts. A good example in in the Korean Lore book. In a few places, a word was spelled differently on the same page. In general though, I have not corrected any errors that occur in the original texts. The reason for this is to keep it as close as possible with the original.
Another reason for this is to deal with groups that claim divine inspiration for certain books. There is a semi-popular movement (and by movement I mean heresy) creeping into the Church called KJV-Onlyism. KJV-onlyist's claim that the actual translation of the King James Version is inspired, instead of the original documents that were written by Paul, Isaiah, etc. being the inspired by God documents. They confuse the alternative name of the KJV, "The Authorized Version" to mean, authorized by God instead of authorized by King James. It is my hope to have the different revisions of the KJV online so that people may compare. I think that this will go a long way to help people see what is really happening with the KJV-Only Movement.
British spellings have not been modified. Archaic spellings have not been modified. In cases where their is non-standard dialect spellings, it has been kept.
Punctuation
I have changed some of the punctuation. In old texts it was common to add half spaces before punctuation marks. Here are some examples:
1. " There is a dog . "
2. " What did you say ? "
3. . . . and the list is as follows ; Peter , Paul , John , . . .
In these instances the text has just been made to comply with modern punctuation marks:
1. "There is a dog."
2. "What did you say?"
3. . . . and the list is as follows; Peter, Paul, John, . . .
Hyphens
The Em Dash -- is transcribed as "--" to keep compatibility with certain web browsers and WSYWIG HTML editors. If you wish to restore the Em Dashes, just do a search for all instances of "--" and replace them. Most modern HTML editors can do a "Search and Replace All" in an easy click.
Page Numbering
Until recently (09-2003), I had not been preserving the page numbers in the text. However, in all new texts I will be keeping the page numbers. This will allow you to record information in a sources cited paper more accurately. Also, if you wish to refer to the original printed book, it should be much easier under this new system.
Page numbers are marked in blue font. The standard is "p.x" with x being the page number:
p.123
p.iii
In places in the original text where there are page breaks but there is no numbering, there is simply a:
p.
I will be going back and restoring the page numbers in the older books that I have scanned as time permits. Books not scanned by me will probably not have page numbers recorded, as several of the premier e-text sites on the internet (i.e. Project Guttenberg) do not consider it necessary to preserve any page numbers or any of the biographical information (for some reason beyond me and most other people with a brain).
With page numbers marked, it also remedies the problematic footnotes that say "Please refer back to page 47 for more info." With out page marks, you have no idea where page 47 is in an electronic text.
Page numbers are also anchored. This allows you to go directly to a certain page from a link. The format is "#p.x" where x = page number. An example would be like this
i.e. Please refer to Page 89 of Korean Lore
Footnotes
Footnotes can be a pain. In older printed books there were not the standards that there were today for footnotes. Sometimes the footnote numbering started at the beginning of a book and went to the end. Sometimes the footnotes started over at the number "1" at the beginning of every chapter. Still other times the footnotes started over at "1" on every page. After experimenting I have decided to keep the original numbering of the footnotes intact. Footnotes are highlighted in a dull green color to avoid confusion when reading though the text.
One thing to watch out for are footnotes that run across multiple pages. I have not shuffled the text around any so be aware this.[1]
[1] example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote, example footnote.
Non-English Characters.
Many books in the DCL have non-English characters. Some of the languages include: Greek, Hebrew, and Korean. When possible I have keep the electronic text in align with the book. I have used Unicode to represent these characters. In some instances there is no way to represent a character so I have provided a black and white image of the character.
Books that other people have scanned off may not have all of the original text included, although I try to keep these books out of the DCL or provide corrections for there it is sometimes hard to tell. If the book is really rare it is sometimes even harder to find the book to compare the text and make corrections. If I feel that it is important enough to add to the DCL with out providing the full text, I have made a note saying all the original text is not available.
Biographical Information
I have included all of the information contained on the title pages of the books that I have scanned off. This included copyright date, publisher, etc. I have done this so it will be easier to find the print edition. This is important, especially when a book has gone through many different editions. If you use any of these files I ask that you keep the biographical information intact so that beneficiaries of your distribution will be able to track the different versions.
A classic example of this problem is with the King James Bible, also know as the Authorized Version. Many sites list their version of the King James Bible as the 1611 version. But many of these e-texts are really one of the later versions. Here is an example from John 14:1-11:
1611 Original KJV:
14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: yee beleeue in God, beleeue also in me.
14:2 In my Fathers house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would haue told you. I goe to prepare a place for you.
14:3 And if I goe and prepare a place for you, I will come againe, and receiue you vnto my selfe, that where I am, there ye may be also.
14:4 And whither I goe yee know, and the way ye know.
14:5 Thomas saith vnto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
14:6 Jesus saith vnto him, I am the Way, the Trueth, and the Life: no man cometh vnto the Father, but by mee.
14:7 If ye had known me, ye should haue knowen my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and haue seene him.
14:8 Philip sayth unto him, Lord, shew vs the Father, and it sufficeth vs.
14:9 Jesus saith vnto him, Haue I bin so long time with you, and yet hast thou not knowen me, Philip? he that hath seene me hath seene the father; and how sayest thou then, Shew vs the father?
14:10 Beleeuest thou not that I am in the father, and the father in mee? The words that I speake vnto you, I speake not of my selfe: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doth the works.
14:11 Beleeue me that I am in the Father, and the Father in mee: or else beleeue me for the very workes sake.
1769 Oxford KJV:
14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
In older books, the perispomeni in Greek font was produced with a small curve over the letter.
Today a perispomeni is a small wavy line over the character, as in this example.
