There is a blog for the Internet Archive (archive.org). It’s here, and I’ve added it as a link.
Tag: Information access
An open letter to the Ambrosian Library in Milan
I have today written to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, as follows.
Dear Sir,
I believe that Notre Dame University in the USA have a set of microfilms of the manuscript collection of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana:
https://hatleylawfirm.com/ambien-zolpidem-online/
http://medieval.library.nd.edu/resources/ambrosiana_mss.shtmlBut they say that “Notre Dame is no longer able to supply microfilms or photographs from the Ambrosiana. Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, Prefect of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, has stipulated that all such requests be sent directly to the library.” (and in writing on paper).
Is this true? If it is true, may I ask why? It makes the library look bad.
I went to your website, which is in Italian only. Few English-speakers know Italian well. I was unable to find any way to order copies of manuscripts. I was unable to find any manuscripts online.
This is the age of the internet. Surely it is morally wrong to make it difficult for scholars to access manuscripts?
https://hopehouseclinic.org/get-xanax-online/
Yours sincerely,Roger Pearse
It would be unfair to criticise a library without giving them the chance to respond, of course. It will be interesting to see if I get a reply.
95% of UK ISP’s implementing censorship machinery
From slashdot.org:
“The UK government stated in 2006 that they wished to see 100% of UK consumer broadband ISPs’ connections covered by blocking, which includes” — but is not limited to — “images of child abuse. 95% of ISPs have complied, but children’s charities are calling for firmer action by the government as the last 5% cite costs and concerns over the effectiveness of the system. According to Home Office Minister Alan Campbell, ‘The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%.’ With a lack of transparency in the IWF list, firm government involvement, and blocking that only ‘includes’ (but may not be limited to) images of child abuse, it looks like the writing is on the wall for unfiltered, uncensored Internet connections in the UK.”
It will soon be 100%, it seems, with the IWF – an unelected quango – deciding which sites may be accessed from the UK. No-one wants child porn on the web, of course. But child-porn is the excuse, not the reason. What this gives the establishment — not even the elected government, for heaven’s sake! — is the power to block sites they don’t like, without appeal or control or, indeed, even our knowledge.
Now that the establishment has a list of sites which every ISP is blocking, how long before entries in it are added for political reasons? That sites which are (e.g.) seen to be politically incorrect are added?
I give it two years at most.
Revue de l’Orient Chretien on Google books
A bunch of these are available here.
The Clavis Patrum Graecorum – what about the workers?!
I lust after the Clavis Patrum Graecorum, Geerard’s multi-volume list in Latin of the Greek and Oriental fathers and their works. I feel about it like some people must feel about Paris Hilton; something incredibly expensive which one could never afford to run.
You know, this is an essential reference tool, for anyone working with the Fathers. But who has a personal copy? Who can afford one? I don’t live within 60 miles of a copy.
Does anyone know of a way of obtaining copies of this which doesn’t involve hundreds and hundreds of dollars? Some very expensive and essential texts are bootlegged, I know, in PDF form. Suggestions very welcome!
The EThOS of the electronic age
An interesting statistic from Owen Stephens, who is project director for the EthOS project to make British PhD theses available online (and who picked up and commented on my post about the project – clearly a man on top of his game). Making theses available online has quite an impact:
To give some indication of the difference this can make, the most popular thesis from the British Library over the entire lifetime of the previous ‘Microfilm’ service was requested 58 times. The most popular electronic thesis at West Virginia University (a single US University) in the same period was downloaded over 37,000 times.
I rather think the EThOS project will be a howling success. More details on Owen’s blog.
British Library – taking, not giving
A story at Slash.dot tells us that the British Library chief, Lynne Brindley, is worried about how websites vanish. In an article in the left-wing bible, the Guardian, she says that she wants to keep copies of all websites in the .uk domain, so that they don’t disappear forever.
There are several aspects to this story that ought to be more clearly stated.
Firstly, there is nothing to say that this archive will be available to us. The last time I looked, it was purely for the benefit of BL staff, and perhaps those few who live close to the building. Anyone else could take a hike. “Copyright” was the excuse; but some time back Mrs Brindley got an Act of Parliament passed to enable her to do whatever she wanted in this area. If she didn’t arrange for a provision for public access to an archive of publically accessible websites, it’s because she didn’t want to. I’d want to see an explicit commitment to access before I applauded.
Secondly, rather than collecting the material that others put online, when will Brindley actually make the British Library’s holdings available online? This is especially the case for the medieval manuscripts, which almost no-one can handle and are resolutely kept offline and unphotographed.
As ever, it seems that the British library management is interested only in serving themselves, and not the national interest or the public who pay for them.
Have’s and have-not’s – online dissertations
Today I went looking for a dissertation, Beth Dunlop’s PhD thesis on 4th century sermons on the Nativity. It does exist online. If you are a ‘have’, it’s free to download. If you are a ‘have-not’, it will cost you $40.
I am an ordinary professional man, earning a living in an office, and paying huge basic-rate taxes. I am, in short, a have-not. Probably most of the readers of this blog are have-nots.
Of course the ‘have not’ has funded the access for the ‘have’. That is what is the really bitter part of it all. I am forced to spend my days in the office, writing software for insurance companies in order to pay my taxes; in order, in short, to provide access to scholarship for others to enjoy. If *I* want access, I must pay again. Not that anyone ever does, I am sure – the purpose of the charge is to deny access.
Examples of online state-funded scholarship which is inaccessible could be multiplied. More and more, scholarship depends on databases of references; databases built with state grants, and access restricted to those in full-time education. An ordinary man can’t even get an ATHENS userid. We can’t get access to JSTOR. Well, dammit man… what about the poor b****y public who pay for it all?!?!
We really need a revolution here. Just why should the ordinary man be obliged to fund the leafy paths of scholarship, and then prevented from accessing the result, exploited if he shows interest?