Ordering custom hardcopy
(printouts or PDFs)

If you have not yet read our page on Database hardcopy (printouts), you should do so before reading the rest of this page.  Otherwise what you read here may not make much sense.  Besides, some of what's written below will refer back to what's written there, to avoid duplication and/or confusion.

In a reversal of previous policy (or intention), we will not normally provide custom printouts identical to standard PDFs available for download, because nowadays you can easily enough arrange to have those printed as you wish.  If you want an exception to this policy, you'll have to present a good argument.  So the rest of this page assumes that you want a custom product from the database.

If you have a clear idea of what you want, and how it differs from the standard PDFs, that's fine - skip the rest of this paragraph.  If you don't have a clear idea of what you want, it might help to do this:

• Study the organization of data on this Website, including the Standard format for site data pages.
• Download the Title Page, Introduction, and at least one of the geographic area PDFs available here, and peruse them carefully.
• Review the sections of the Hardcopy page that explain what else is in the database, how hardcopy is geographically organized, how it is logically organized, and what the most useful selection criteria are.
• Think about how the information which you want could be extracted from the information which we already present on this Website, even though that might be a tedious effort if done by hand.

Now you should know something about what is available, so you can answer these questions:

• What is your geographic area of interest?
• What criteria do you want to be used to select sites within that area?
• What criteria do you want to be used to sort the sites in order?

Restrictions:

There is one major restriction on selection:  because of computer processing limitations, it is not possible to start with the entire world as the geographic area of interest unless one of the selection criteria is "only traditional carillons".  The worldwide summary of instruments shows the numbers involved; the current limit is 1720 sites comprising 2500 phases of installation.  Currently only North America has chimes treated as a separate "geographical area"; omitting that section as well as Italy permits the remainder of the world to be loaded into the analysis program.  It appears likely that the same separation will have to be applied to the Netherlands soon.

As indicated under Useful selection criteria, there is a very wide variety of possibilities, and essentially all of them can also be used as sort criteria.  However, there is one major restriction on sorting.  If you specify sort criteria, then for the instruments which meet your selection criteria you cannot see the technical detail of any installation phase which does not meet your selection criteria.  Expressed another way, if you want to see all installation phases of every instrument wherein any phase meets your selection criteria, then the sites must be listed in original area/city alphabetic order (i.e., no sort criteria can be specified).

How to order

In another reversal of previously-expressed intentions, there is no order form for obtaining custom printouts.  The complexities of putting together a custom extract process cannot be simply expressed in a straightforward, easy-to-understand form.  That's partly why it's taken so long for this long-planned service to become a reality!

To start the order process, click this email link:  csz_stl@swbell.net
That should open a new outgoing message in your email program, preset with my eddress and the subject "PrintToOrder Request".  In the body of that message, answer the following questions, putting each answer in a separate paragraph:

• What is your geographic area of interest?
• What criteria do you want to be used to select sites within that area?
• What criteria (if any) do you want to be used to sort the sites in order?
• If you need actual hardcopy instead of a custom PDF, why?

Add any other information which you think might be helpful to clarify just what you want.  Make sure that your signature includes your full name and postal address.  Review your message for completeness and accuracy before you send it.  You may expect to receive a reply within 24 to 48 hours.

If your message isn't clear, or I can't do precisely what you've asked, we'll exchange emails until we reach agreement or you withdraw your request. 

When I can produce what you want, I'll tell you how many pages there will be, and what it will cost.  That is figured as follows:

• 15 cents per page, minimum US$10.00.
• For printed copy instead of PDF, double the per-page figure (but not the minimum); there is no separate charge for printing or for shipping by surface mail.

If you insist on printed copy, I'll also give an estimated production schedule. 

If you agree with that, then print a copy of my quotation message, and send it via postal mail to me at the address specified therein, along with a check or money order in US$.  Checks must have magnetic encoding for clearance through a US bank.

Upon receipt of your payment, I will produce your custom printout.  If you paid for PDF, it will be emailed to you within 48 hours.  If you paid for hardcopy, it will be printed, bound (if appropriate) and shipped by surface mail, and an email notice of shipment will be sent to you.

PLEASE NOTE:   This publishing venture is completely independent of the GCNA and the WCF, though it is intended to support the purposes of both organizations.  This venture is also not for profit.  There is no charge for my time and labor in producing your hardcopy.  Your payment goes to cover direct production costs and postage (for physical hardcopy), as well as part of the direct costs of information acquisition and organization.  If through some miscalculation this venture does produce a surplus, it will be donated to the WCF as an unrestricted contribution.

Frankly, I don't expect a large demand for this service.  I hope that the Web pages and PDF files which I have supplied will meet the vast majority of requirements for information.  But the capability to produce a wide variety of special reports does exist.  (It's used as the basis for all summary pages on this Website.)  So this service makes it accessible to others.

/signed/ Carl Scott Zimmerman, Campanologist

P.S.  By now you will have realized the references to "we" and "our" in these pages are the editorial plural.

P.P.S.  If your request seems to be something that would be widely useful as well as easy to produce on a routine basis, I may choose to convert your order into a suggestion for enhancement of the TowerBells Website.

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This page was created 2007/12/07 and last revised 2022/04/10.

Please send comments or questions about this page to csz_stl@swbell.net.