On 12/21/06, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
No, you absolutely cannot do that, for reasons eloquently stated elsewhere. The claim that it is not in the Cornell University Library is a novel conclusion based on your own original research; this seems so trivially obvious to me that it astonishes me that others would claim otherwise. You might as well promote a novel claim in physics, and point people to the calculations you have made to prove your theory. If a reliable source says "the book is not found in the Cornell University Library", then quote them. Otherwise, move on.
What's novel about "It doesn't appear on the such results, therefore it isn't in the library"? Seems like an obvious conclusion to me... (might not be 100% reliable, depending on search terms, accuracy of the library's index, etc, but that doesn't make it novel).
Read your own words; "Seems like an obvious conclusion to me..." You are drawing your own conclusions, rather than quoting others who have drawn those conclusions. In addition, by definition it is a *novel* conclusion; if it weren't novel, then you'd be able to quote someone who had come to the same conclusion.
Jay.