Archive for 16th of February, 2008
Scholarly Journals between the Past and the Future by Martin Rundkvist.
Feb 16th
Rundkvist, M. 2007. Scholarly Journals between the Past and the Future: The Fornvännen Centenary Round-Table Seminar, Stockholmm 21 April 2006. Konferenser 65. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien.
It’s a measure of the quality of this book that I have delayed putting up a review until I have thought it could get the audience it deserves. The volume brings together papers by nine editors of journals across Europe, each with their own perspective on what the future holds for publishing. Their opinions are diverse and provocative, but even where some assertions are demonstrably wrong they highlight misconceptions about publishing which need to be tackled.
The first paper is ‘Scholarly Open Access Journals and Libraries’ by Jan Hagerlid. This can be an overlooked aspect of the Open Access debate, with academics concentrating on the content rather than the medium. Hagerlid raises some interesting points highlighting that the aims even of of traditional and conservative scholars do not necessarily align with those of publishers. For example he notes that the transition to electronic subscription would have mean the end of the inter-library loan, had the publishers been granted what they demanded. He also argues that it would be wrong to treat publishers as a More >
Archaeological survey on film
Feb 16th
I’m unconvinced by a lot of Web 2.0 material for teaching. The limit of my use of Youtube or Vimeo is for showing short animations. The idea of putting something substantial up as video doesn’t appeal, especially on Youtube, which is not that good for watching lengthy video. Archaeology is particularly difficult. For filming in the field, I don’t have the time to learn the skills. Lab-based material may be easier where more variables can be controlled, but even that takes a bit more effort than just pointing a video camera at something. I also get the impression that some of these things could be done better in other ways. For instance the Çatalhöyük project might have some interesting short films, but I can’t be certain because I’ve only found it on their Second Life Island and Second Life is lousy application for viewing video.
Nonetheless I’m impressed with PKAP’s new short, Learning Fieldwalking announced on Ancient History Ramblings. It shows me what you can do with short video, if you do it properly. It’s large enough on the screen that you don’t feel like you’re peering at an animated stamp. It took a couple of views for me to realise the sound More >
