Q. How do you know that the books in the Compact Libraries are no longer copyright protected?
A.
As laws currently stand, any book published
in the United States before 1923 is considered to be in the "public domain" and
can be reproduced without paying a royalty to the copyright holder. Until 1998,
American copyright law provided that 75 years after a book was published its contents became
the property of the "public domain". In 1998, however, all U.S. Copyrights were extended
for another 20 years, meaning that no more books can enter the public domain until 2018.
At the time the new law was passed, however, everything published before 1923 was already
deemed to be public domain.
Books published after 1923 can also be public domain if the copyright holder failed
to renew their copyright, or if the copyright holder explicitly renounced their copyright
claim. Heritage History currently concerns itself only with pre-1923 texts. We have
pre-1923 copies of each of the books in our collection physically in our possession
to avert any potential conflict.
Q. Are the illustrations as well as the text copyright clear?
A.
Yes and no. Whenever a visual image is reproduced, the new image is copyright protected. For
example, photographs of great works of art are copyright protected, even if the work
itself is hundreds of years old. Any image that was
published in a book prior to 1923 can be scanned or re-photographed, but if it is, then the new
image is copyright protected. Since Heritage History actually owns original, pre-1923 copies
of almost all of our books, we are able to make digital images of the illustrations therein.
Those images, however, are the property of Heritage History and are not, themselves, in the
public domain.
Since virtually all of the books in our Compact Libraries employ electronic images, they
cannot be freely reproduced without the permission of Heritage History. However, Heritage
History does in fact grant generous usage and reproduction permission. See the
Terms of Use page, for more details.
Reproduction and Usage
Q. I am a teacher. May I copy some of these books for my students?
A. The Heritage History Compact Libraries were developed especially with educators
in mind. Because all of the books on these disks are no longer copyright protected, we are
able to grant permission for teachers to print multiple copies of these works.
This is a unique convenience
that is not possible to offer when working with copyrighted materials.
We insist however, that you do not copy the entire contents of the Compact Library.
There is a considerable amount of original content on our CD's, which may not be freely
copied or distributed. The conditions and terms of usage of our material can be
found here. Please review them before copying any of
our texts.
Q. May I make copies of the Heritage History books for friends?
A. You may make printed copies of the books and distribute them informally, but you
may not print and distribute books for sale to the general public unless granted written
permission by Heritage History. We prohibit the use of our resources for commercial
purposes except under certain prescribed conditions, which must be negotiated in advance
on an individual basis.
Q. May I create my own anthology using selected chapters from a Compact Library collection?
A. Absolutely. Teachers who wish to pick and choose the most appropriate readings
to augment a particular curriculum are welcome to do so. We have used this method ourselves
when teaching history classes to provide our students with the best possible supplemental
reading to go along with their required texts.
Our Compact Libraries books are excellent resources for creating this
type of customized reading lists and the fact that the works are in the public domain means
you do not have to worry about copyright infringement. The original copyright and Heritage History
distribution dates are included at the bottom of each page, so even if chapters are taken
from mid-book, the original source is clearly identified.
Q. Since the books are all in the public domain, why can't I make copies of the whole CD?
A. The Heritage History Compact Libraries include a considerable amount of
original material that we have produced in order to promote these traditional history books, and also a great
deal of "public domain" material that we have laboriously scanned, proof-read, and
formatted. The entire collection, in this particular format, is therefore under
copyright protection. Although we allow and even encourage printing and distributing
individual books from our collection, we prohibit the wholesale replication of our
entire library.
Q. May I use the images from a Compact Library on my website?
A.
For copyright information about the usage of Heritage History images, refer to the
Terms of Use page. In short, the image directories on our compact
libraries are intended to be used for personal and education purposes, such as slide-shows, projects,
or illustrating papers. We do not grant usage of our images for commercial or public usage,
including the internet, without special permission. We do, however, allow owners of independent
websites unlimited rights to "source" the images on www.heritage-history.com—that is, to
instantiate an image within html, which references an object in our online libraries.
All of the images on the Heritage History website are accessible and we have search tools
available to help locate images of interest.
Printing and Binding
Q. How can I keep printing costs as low as possible?
A. We recommend reading the entire page on Printing and Binding
for a complete discussion of the actual costs of printing self-published books.
In short, per-page printing costs can vary dramatically depending on the technology
used. Going to a copy-shop may cost up to $.03 per page
for black and white and over $.40 per page for color. If you have access to a high
volume office-quality printer you can print a book for less than a penny per page in
black and white, and for about $.10 per page in color. This is a broad range of
variability, ranging from over $3.00 per 100 sheets (our equivalent of a 200 page book),
to less than a dollar per 100 sheets.
Unfortunately the actual per-page cost of printing on a low-cost desk-top printer is
closer to that of a professional copy-shop than it is to an office printer. This is
because the cost of custom ink cartridges is outrageously high for small printers.
Small ink cartridges may drive the cost of printing up to $.04 per page, where as the cost
to refill the black ink on an office laser-printer is well under a penny per page.
If you are considering printing more than a few books yourself,
you may want to consider looking into a low-end office printer, or making arrangements
with someone who already has access to a laser printer.
Q. What is the least expensive way to bind self-published books?
A.
The cheapest and easiest way to bind self-published books is to stick to
the old, reliable three-hole punch method with binding rings. To give the product
a more professional look use stiff backing and a clear front cover.
Binding rings of various sizes are available for only pennies per ring,
and if backing and covers are bought in packages of twenty or more,
the complete cost of binding is easily kept less than a dollar per book.
If you would like a more professional look you might want to consider
investing in a low-cost comb-binder, easily obtainable for less than about
$60. Binding rings are less than a dollar each, and the resulting product is
very attractive.
Having your book spiral-bound, with stiff back and front cover provided
by the printer, will set you back about $4.00. This may be worth the cost
for a book you desire to keep around for a long time but is prohibitively
expensive for many self-publishers. Again, we recommend reading the
page on Printing and Binding for a complete discussion of
binding options.
Q. How do I get auto-duplex to print so that the book binds on the left side?
A.
This is a tricky question to answer. We did not address this specifically in the
Printing and Binding instructions because
each printer has a unique driver and the precise sequence of instructions
may vary not only from printer to printer, but from operating system to operating
system. We can give precise instructions for a Brother 4070, printing from a
Vista operating system, for example, but your own configuration may be somewhat
different.
For our system, the PRINT control page allows you to determine the
page range, and number of copies, but in order to put the computer into duplex
mode, you need to select the PRINT-->PROPERTIES page. The Properties page allows you
to select duplex mode, but you need to go to the PROPERTIES-->ADVANCED page
in order to adjust the binding orientation. And now your troubles may just
be beginning, because the binding options can be entirely confusing. The
problem is, the printer does not know whether the book you are printing is
in landscape or portrait mode, so it assumes you are in portrait
mode. The default binding mode, is therefore "bind on left-side", which
for you, means "bind on top". Therefore, if you want to print your book
so that it opens on your left side, you have to select "bind on top".
Got that? To bind on the top, you need to select "bind on left-side". To
bind on the left side, you need to select "bind on top". Glad that's all
clear.
Some printer drivers may do things differently. Some may even preserve the knowledge
of your page orientation and adjust defaults accordingly. As we wrote in the
instructions, before doing ambitous printing projects, you must figure out how
the details of your own computer/printer system.
Reading eBooks on your Computer
Q. Can the PDF files be read outside of the Browser Window?
A.
This is not only possible, but recommended, especially if you intend to read
an entire eBook on your computer. The Compact Library Browser tools
were created to allow you to browse the contents of the library,
view images, compare book summaries, and figure out what books may be of
most interest to you. The Adobe Reader is the tool that actually
displays the books themselves, and this utility can be opened either inside or outside
the Compact Library Browser.
The advantage of reading directly within the Adobe Reader instead of the
Browser environment is two-fold. First, the Adobe Reader has flexible display
options and powerful search tools. Not all of these features are accessible when
the utility is opened within the Browser environment. Second, if you are working
on a computer with a small screen, the Browser window control panel takes up
valuable screen space. The Adobe Reader permits a "full-screen" mode which
maximizes the visible area of the text file, but this option works best outside
the Browser environment.
To open the Adobe Reader outside of the Compact Library Browser environment,
go to the Application directory, or All Programs Menu and select the latest
version of Adobe Reader. Under File->Open, select the CD Drive on your
computer, and browse the pdf directory. All of the book files are located
in the pdf directory. The file name of each book is derived from the
author's last name and a key word in the title. (For example the file name
of America First by Lawton Evans is
evans_america.pdf.) Once you have selected a book, the Adobe Reader provides
a variety of viewing options. The "help" menu of the Adobe Reader describes these features.
On some computers, it is possible to enter the pdf directory by viewing the
contents of the CD drive. On other computers, selecting the CD opens a
Browser Window, and the contents of the CD drive cannot be viewed easily.
If you are able to enter to view the pdf directory using your operating
systems' browser, you can simply double-click on any of the book files in order to
open the Adobe Reader. Opening the Adobe Reader first, and using the Adobe Browser
to search for files, will allow you to browse the pdf directory on your Compact Library
no matter what operating system you are using.
Q. How do I go to a specific chapter in a book?
A. The navigation controls in the Adobe Reader are located at
the top of the displayed page. These include an up-page arrow, a down-page arrow, a current
page-number box, and several other page view controls.
The Table of Contents of each book in your compact Library is typically found on
sheet 2 or 3, and contains the page number for the start of each chapter. Simply type
the associated page number into the box and hit return, and
the Adobe Reader will jump to the beginning of a chapter. To return to the table of contents
simply go back to page 2 or 3.
Q. How do I view the whole page on one screen so I don't have to use a scroll bar?
A. There are two ways to do this. The Page Fit command, Ctrl-0 (zero),
will fit exactly one sheet on your display screen. (This should in fact, be the default mode
in which your Adobe Reader presents your book, but isn't always). When you are in Page Fit
mode, you should navigate by clicking the up/down arrows on the top of the display screen,
or jumping to a particular page.
The other view mode that may be useful is Full Screen Mode, Ctrl-L . This
mode will maximize the viewing space, and remove all Adobe Reader command bars from view.
When used within a Browser, it will enlarge the sheet size to fill all available space.
If no Browser window is open, it will enlarge to fill the entire screen. When in full screen
mode, you must navigate using the directional arrows on your keyboard. Use the ESC
key to return to normal viewing mode.
Q. When I try to view the whole page on my laptop, it is too small to read. What should I do?
A. The latest trend in lap-tops is to make the screens wide and short so that
they can be used to watch wide-screen videos. The problem with this is that the command
menus on both the Compact Library Browser and Adobe Reader are horizontal, so they eat up
precious vertical space, sometimes leaving only 6 or fewer inches for page viewing.
Although the short viewing space is not as convenient as a larger one, browsing the Compact Libraries
and reviewing the selection of books is manageable, even on a small-screen lap-top. The real
problem is trying to read the books
themselves. If you use Page Fit mode (Ctrl-0 (zero)), an entire sheet will appear
in the display space, but the font may be too small to read comfortably. If you enlarge the font
by zooming in you may need to scroll down, rather than page-click.
The work-around for this problem is to open books directly with the Adobe Reader, and use the
Full Screen mode (Ctrl-L) to maximize viewing space. Even on a very wide-screen
laptop, this will provide for a page-based, readable display. Full screen mode dispenses with
all of the annoying command bars and allows the contents of the book to fill the entire screen.
You can navigate by using the arrow keys on the lower right-hand
side of the keyboard, and use the escape key (ESC) to return to the normal mode.
The Adobe Reader Full Screen mode can also be used within the Compact Library Browser, but it won't
gain you as much because it will not make the Browser menus go away.
Q. How do you get the arrow keys to work when a book is open in the Browser environment?
A. The arrow keys only work with Adobe Reader when the book is open in Full Screen mode.
To Full screen mode select CTRL-L . Use the ESC key to return to normal viewing mode.
Searching for Information
Q. How do I search for a word or phrase in a particular book?
A. In the most recent version of Adobe Reader there is a search
box on the control bar to the right of the main control keys. Type a word or phrase into
the search box in order to initiate a search of the active file. More advanced
search options are available by entering Find mode, by selecting CTRL-F .
Q. How do I search the entire Compact Library for a word or phrase?
A. Adobe Reader provides for a search of all of the PDF files on a particular
disk, but this feature cannot be accessed unless the Reader is opened outside of the
Browser environment. To search the entire compact Library CD for a particular
topic, therefore, first open any book from within the Adobe Reader.
(See here for instructions.)
Once you have opened the Adobe Reader, you may
select the Search command or enter Shift-CTRL-F under the Edit menu. This
command will open a Search Window to the left of the active page.
The Search Window will allow you to search either the current document, or
all PDF Documents in a given location. To search the Compact Library,
select All PDF Documents and locate the Heritage History CD/DVD drive from the drop-down menu.
Your search can be refined using advanced search capabilities. The search results will
be returned to the Search Window, and you can step through them as desired.
System Requirements and Trouble Shooting
Q. What are the system requirements for using the Compact Libraries?
A.
The files on the Compact Libraries are all "data" rather than "program" files.
The Compact Libraries, therefore, rely on several common programs that already
exist on most Personal Computers.
The two main programs that are necessary to use the Compact Libraries are
1) an Internet Browser, and 2) the Adobe Reader. The Browser program reads
and displays HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files, and the Adobe Reader
displays PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
Both of these programs can be downloaded for free if they are not already
on your computer.
If you use the internet on a regular basis, you already have an internet
browser on your machine. The most common internet browsers are Microsoft's
Internet Explorer, Firefox Mozilla, and Apple's Safari. All three of these work
well with Heritage History's Compact Libraries.
The other program employed by the Compact Libraries is the Adobe Reader. The
PDF files used by Adobe are supported by virtually all modern
computers, printers, and document processors. Heritage History uses
PDF files so that our
print-ready books can be displayed on any computer system and printed
on any printer. The Adobe Reader supports a variety of advanced
viewing and searching options, so if you intend to read many of the
Compact Library eBooks on your computer, it is well worth becoming familiar
with the complete Program. See the FAQ section on Reading eBooks for more details.
Most computers already have an Adobe Reader on them, and if not, one can be
downloaded for free at the following web address:
http://get.adobe.com/reader
Q. When I click on a book title in the Browser window, nothing happens!
A.
If nothing happens when you click on a book title in the Compact Library
Browser environment, it is likely because there is a problem with your Adobe
Reader. You may not have the software installed correctly, or you may have
an older version that is not compatible with the latest version of your
Browser Window. Even if you already have an Adobe Reader, there could be
a problem that may be corrected by down-loading the latest version. We advise
you to exit the Compact Library, re-install Adobe Reader (see the web address
given above), and then reboot your computer. This process should clear up any
incompatibility problems between your Browser and the Adobe Reader.
Q. I can't get to the pdf directory. When I click on the CD drive, the browser opens automatically!
A.
In some program windows, the contents of the Compact Library Disk are clearly visible when you
select the CD Drive on your computer. In other systems (the Microsoft Windows Folder Tool, in particular),
selecting the CD Drive triggers an auto-run script that loads the Compact Library Introductory Guide into
your Browser. This can
be frustrating but there are a few easy work-arounds. For example, if you have a Windows operating system,
you need to realize the problem only occurs when you select the CD drive from within a Folder tool.
If you use Windows Explorer instead, you will be able to see the contents of the Compact Library when you
select the CD drive. Another way to view the contents of the pdf directory that works on any
computer system is to open the Adobe Reader first and then Browse the contents of the Compact
Library from the Adobe Reader Window.
Future Products
Q. Does Heritage History publish its own books?
A. No. At this time we only resell from other print-on-demand publishers. The Heritage History
versions of these books are not
suitable for commercial publishing for a number of reasons. Although adequate for
personal use, there still remain a number of typos and formatting issues that would need
to be corrected before a high quality commercial version could be produced.
Q. Do you plan to produce more Compact Libraries in the future?
A. It has taken over four years to produce all of the books and resources currently available on the Heritage
History website. Our original release of Compact Libraries in 2009 included many of the books and civilizations that
we had completed up to that time. We have now finished a unit on Hispanic History
and Exploration, and will probably produce another Library on that theme in the near future.
Preparing new material is very time consuming. Although we will
continue to make steady progress on our collection, it is unlikely that from this time forward we will be able to
produce more than one history-related Compact Library per year.
Contact Us
Q. How does one contact Heritage History with questions?
A.
There are several ways to contact us, all based on the internet.
For permission to use any of our resources for commercial or public use, contact us at
infodesk@heritage-history.com.
If you have a problem with any of our products, use the address
customerservice@heritage-history.com. Finally,
if you have either a practical or a philosophical question about history, you may want to visit the
Ask Heritage page on
the Heritage History website, or submit a question to
askheritage@heritage-history.com.
