"Botbooks"
"Botbooks" are small 3¾×5½" booklets of "driveby-archaeobotany" designed to be carried in the pocket or purse and used as a quick reference by anyone out and about in their local area.
They are also designed to be printed and assembled by the individual. Admittedly, this has both an upside and a downside. The upside is that sometimes this makes the little booklet more special to the people in that they made it themselves. This is especially true of younger readers such as Cub Scouts. Another upside is that the users can make more of them at any time for merely the cost of the paper, ink and staples.
The downside is that it takes a little effort to do the printing, cutting, collating, and so forth. And in some cases it takes a little patience to figure out how the printer handles the paper--some printers print upside down and on the back of the paper as it is loaded into the tray, for example.
At present there are two botbooks in use:
The author is eager to work with anyone who would like tailor a botbook for their particular area or interest or for a particular age level. The only requirement is that the person make a good faith effort to see that the book be used as an educational resource to some reasonable extent.To print the booklet you do not need a special printer, so long as that printer has at least 300 dots per inch of resolution and prints on 8.5X11" laser or copy paper. It will not work with any printer that uses continuous paper with the perforations on the side. An HP-LaserJet III or better or an ink-jet printer works fine. To make a copy of this booklet do the following.
Instructions for printing and assembling the booklet
1. Download the PDF file and save it to your disk.
2. When you view the file displayed on your monitor, it won't make much sense. It is regular letter sized pages made up of four smaller pages.
3. Go to the print menu and do the following (Don't get in a hurry and overlook any of these steps.):
4. Make certain the the print configuration is set to print all the pages.
5. Set the "print odd or even pages" option to print odd pages only.
6. Click on the OK button to print the pages. Make certain you do not change the order of the stack of pages when you take them out of the printer. Turn the stack over and put it back in the printer to print on the other side. Make certain you place it so that the top of the page will be the same on both sides of the paper.
7. Go to the print menu and choose the following:
8. Make certain the the print configuration is still set to print all the pages.
9. Set the "print odd or even pages" option to print even pages only.
10. This is important: Don't overlook it: Click box to print the pages in reverse order.
11. Click on the OK button to print the pages. Take the stack of pages out of the printer. They should be printed on both sides with the top of the page the same on both sides of the sheet.
12. With a ruler and knife, cut the pages horizontally exactly across the middle between the top and bottom pairs of pages. Do not cut them vertically between the left and right pages.
13. Assemble the double-page layouts in this way: Lay down the "Acknowledgements" page face up. Put page 2 on top of it, page 4 on top of that, page 6 on top of that, and page 8 on top of that, and page 10 on top of that. The page on the top of the stack should be page 10 on the left and page 11on the right.
14. Fold the stack vertically in the center so that the front cover is facing up. If you followed all these steps correctly the little booklet is paginated correctly.
15. Trim a .25 inch strip off the right side of the booklet so that it will fit into a shirt pocket a little better.
16. Put a staple or two in the spine with a regular stapler.Note: You are invited to make as many copies of this booklet as you wish and pass them out as you wish, provided you not use them for any commercial purpose or alter, edit or deface them in any way. In particular, you may not remove or hide the copyright notice or publication information on the back cover.
You (or your organization) may distribute them non-commercially with a handwritten notation on them about such things as an organization name, event, phone number, etc. Or if you would like, contact me to see about having a version put together for your organization or event.
I would appreciate it if you emailed me, letting me know how well it worked (or didn't work). I would also appreciate knowing about any use anyone is getting out of the booklet.
Thanks.
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
This document: http://www.prairienet.org/prairienations/botbooks.htm
Author: Jim Fay, Ph.D.
Comments to: jfay@prairienet.org
Last Update: 3/14/08
The Prairie Nations website, exhibits and materials are by Meredith and Jim Fay, who are solely responsible for the content. No other affiliation is expressed or implied.
