Its been a while so I thought I post - Still documenting in depth the contents of magazines from cover to cover

Its been a while so I thought I post - Still documenting in depth the contents of magazines from cover to cover

Hi There
Its been a while since I posted -as my job finding work for young and not so young people has kept me very busy post COVID Level 4 here in New Zealand - We are lucky here only 22 people have died of which 90% are over 65 and they probably had some life threatening illness anyway! - NZ Closed its borders pretty quickly -so generally apart from a few cases every few months reported - people can move freely without masks!
I work for Kiwi Can Do as Hutt Rep and really enjoy the job but its stressful
www.kiwi-can-do.co.nz

But I have still managed to continue with my hobby like recently I finished April 1990 The Automobile - a premium UK slim publication but loaded with history; driving impression; Restoration articles on vintage cars Pre 1950 (I done most them so far 1983-April 1990 and I have a collection to late 1994 - given to me by Rod Tilley - A Rolls Royce enthusiast ; Official Rolls Royce repairer and also help runs the car club . He wrote Book on Rolls Royces in NZ a few years back and needed information from me! - In fact he gave me lots of mags in return that will take a life time to go through until I retire at 65 - I now almost 60!) Likely when I finish with them I will donate to the local vintage car club .

I looked at Database of mags - which is great - but reading the inside contents page or scanning copy of a cover is a start - but sorry to say -does not cut it (Bit harsh but its up front) - I document the lot down to the letters (Whats is in those letters can make interesting reading when it might be a letter from cars original designer, builder or owner!) - So I see if I can add a few details to some of the more obscure issues you have here!
- Although I documented mine based on Make ; model or topic with magazine details down full pages numbers- It got t the point where in some cases I created a paper trail or where some of more obscure makes or models have been! or list of survivors - For example almost all the 99 made Gordon-Keebles of which 2 were sold here NZ new! and Mr Keeble was also involved with other projects like making 2 x V8 Vauxhall Ventora FE V8s! One which was featured by Autocar UK ( I done most of those 1947 - 1975 and 12 weeks in every 52 to 2001! That was a huge job as I also done The Motor 1947-1968 and 35+ other publications)
Last year I did a Wheels magazine and it was cracker for content around 1974 - Full of Aussie Collectable muscle cars and I will add those details
Blew me out of water how good that mag was! - Sadly Wheels and Motor are NOT what they used to be! and that comment is true with many modern magazines - Pity a lot of them do not have a Letters page?

If you stuck where to find article - I might have documented it (I might not have the mag itself with me -as I spent long periods of time and documented mostly from The National Library NZ collection - -
Sad to say with lot of THOSE archives on net have appalling search engines!
CONTACT me at julian.walls@xtra.co.nz

Last edited Feb 6 '21 at 02:00 (UTC)

Completely agree with you about the quality of Wheels magazines from the 1970s and how current magazines have gone downhill. Current magazines often disappoint with photos that are all about being artistic but there are often articles where you don't get one clear shot of what the car really looks like. I also find it annoying when they talk about a particular standout feature in the text but there's no photo to show that feature.

As for the database on this website, we don't have any set structure for how data is entered. Data has been kindly provided to me for use on the website by several members in a variety of formats with varying degrees of detail and I've used what I've been given and made it searchable. I've catalogued many issues myself and have changed my technique many times, sometimes just going off the contents page, but usually going through the magazine page by page and entering models covered. Sometimes I've added page lengths and sometimes I've included advertisements.

My goal with the website was to originally just be able to search my own collection for articles on a specific model, and to allow other collectors to do the same.

It would be great to offer a standard way of cataloguing magazine contents and I'm open to suggestions for best practises to try and standardise it for new content.

Hello JohnA. Regarding your comment about being open to requests on the magazine database: here is a thought.

There is a software company based in Holland/Netherlands, which for a low fee provides individuals with access to their own catalogue/database systems for users' Books, Comics, electronic Games, Movies.

Now, although they do NOT have magazines in there yet, my guess is that they will have the knowledge and expertise to be able to assist in some way. Who knows, if you engage with them on the issue, that might start them on a whole new software line which they can sell to the world.

Here is the URL for them: https://www.collectorz.com
(oops -- it didn't create as a URL. Sorry. My ineptitude).

My wife and I have used their Book Collectors software for many years, and they are continuously updating and further developing each of their software items.

Hoping that this might help.
Raymond.