Dissemination of the Handbook

A number of academic publishers were unwilling to take the risk of publishing both a paper version of the Handbook and an electronic version on the Web (including a publisher who had previously done just this, but had apparently not been happy with the result). The Mouton de Gruyter department of Walter de Gruyter Publishers, Berlin, agreed however, to offer the following innovative dissemination structure:

1. Library Handbook edition (including hypertext version on CD-ROM)
2. Four paperback parts: I: Spoken language system and Corpus design,
   II: Spoken language characterisation,
   III: Spoken language system assessment,
   IV: Spoken language reference materials.
3. Free Web access to hypertext version with user registration.

In the interests of reducing the price, a no-royalties policy was agreed. In addition, negotiations with ELRA have been initiated with the aim of supplying the library edition to ELRA members at a significant discount.

Although the careful consensus-building procedure and the professional publishing requiremt have meant a longer production process than originally anticipated, the Spoken Language Working Group is confident that the results will justify both the effort and time spent. Editing of the Handbook has been completed and the Handbook is now in production.

Further information is available on the EAGLES Spoken Language Working Group Web page:

http://coral.lili.uni-bielefeld.de/gibbon/EAGLES/

and on the central Web page of the EAGLES project:

http://www.ilc.pi.cnr.it/EAGLES96/home.html

Queries should be directed to Dafydd Gibbon at:

gibbon@spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de