Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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particularly because of their technological connections I don’t know of one. So I th<strong>in</strong>k that
there is a basic mistrust toward the digital medium <strong>in</strong> academia, and particularly with regard to
tenure and promotion. And I th<strong>in</strong>k that to some extent it’s justified. … At best, the digital
medium produces data that are structured sometimes very well and with a great deal of
<strong>in</strong>teractive opportunities, search capabilities, and whatnot. But a website does not really
develop an argument, and what we expect of a scholar, young or old, is to be able to develop an
argument (Harley et al. 2010, 38).
Harley and colleagues report noted that one department head suggested that digital publications be
represented <strong>in</strong> a “new category” between service and teach<strong>in</strong>g. Many archaeologists who were
<strong>in</strong>terviewed did not seem to realize that a number of onl<strong>in</strong>e journals, such as Internet Archaeology, are
peer-reviewed. 196 While traditional publish<strong>in</strong>g largely rema<strong>in</strong>s the rule, the Center for Hellenic Studies
(CHS) 197 has founded its own digital publish<strong>in</strong>g program that <strong>in</strong>cludes journals such as Classics@, and
has also put electronic books on its website. 198 On the other hand, the APA and Archaeological
Institute of America (AIA) released a report on electronic publications <strong>in</strong> 2007 where the most
“revolutionary” move proposed was for the APA to “explore a new digitally-distributed series of APA
monographs” (APA/AIA 2007). 199
Not all scholars <strong>in</strong>terviewed by the CSHE were pessimistic about the potential of electronic publish<strong>in</strong>g,
however, and some believed the potential was largely dependent on the discipl<strong>in</strong>e. One scholar
<strong>in</strong>terviewed felt that it was reasonable that with<strong>in</strong> 10 years “most of the scholarly life cycle <strong>in</strong>
papyrology” would be <strong>in</strong>tegrated and accessible <strong>in</strong> the same technological platform. This scholar was
also very hopeful regard<strong>in</strong>g the digital potential for epigraphy and the development of a comprehensive
digital environment for Greek, but argued that far more work needed to be done for Lat<strong>in</strong>. A f<strong>in</strong>al
<strong>in</strong>sight offered by this <strong>in</strong>dividual was that “these digital projects make it possible for the rest of us to
get access to the material that makes the books possible” (Harley et al. 2010, 64). Increas<strong>in</strong>g digital
access to archaeological data, accord<strong>in</strong>g to this scholar, not only supported digital scholarship but also
had great benefits for traditional monograph publish<strong>in</strong>g.
Despite many traditional scholars’ reluctance to evaluate web-based publications, the CSHE report
ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed that new models of onl<strong>in</strong>e publication not only offer better ways of <strong>in</strong>tegrat<strong>in</strong>g all types of
data, from site reports and databases to videos and digital reconstructions, but also can provide almost
immediate access to data as it is discovered. Even more important, “these <strong>in</strong>itiatives are truly datadriven,
collaborative, and require a shift <strong>in</strong> the traditional th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g of the “monograph as the f<strong>in</strong>al
publication on a site” (Harley et al. 2010). Onl<strong>in</strong>e publication thus offers new opportunities for datadriven
scholarship, collaboration, and almost real-time updat<strong>in</strong>g. The report authors assert that an
additional advantage of the dynamic nature of onl<strong>in</strong>e publication is that scholarly arguments can
evolve as more data are published and this process can be made much more transparent to the reader.
Meckseper and Warwick (2003) make a similar po<strong>in</strong>t, not<strong>in</strong>g that electronic publication can help
196 A recent article by Mart<strong>in</strong> Carver has exam<strong>in</strong>ed the issue of peer review, open access and journal publication <strong>in</strong> archaeology (Carver 2007).
197 The CHS is a classical research <strong>in</strong>stitute that is affiliated with Harvard University and is based <strong>in</strong> Wash<strong>in</strong>gton, DC. Founded <strong>in</strong> 1962 through an
<strong>in</strong>dependent endowment made “exclusively for the establishment of an educational center <strong>in</strong> the field of Hellenic Studies designed to re-discover the
humanism of the Hellenic Greeks” the CHS hosts a number of <strong>in</strong>novative digital projects (such as the Homer Multitext) and is also responsible for a
number of different onl<strong>in</strong>e publications.
198 http://chs.harvard.edu/wa/pageRtn=Publications&bdc=12&mn=0
199 A more recent report released by the APA has <strong>in</strong>dicated that the association is plann<strong>in</strong>g to launch a major “Campaign for Classics <strong>in</strong> the 21 st Century”
that has been endorsed by the NEH through a $650,000 challenge grant that requires a 4-to-1 match. If successful, the APA plans to build a Digital Portal
that will <strong>in</strong>clude access to the bibliographic resources of the APh, to the full text of articles, dissertations, and monographs, to images of orig<strong>in</strong>al source
materials (as well as <strong>in</strong>terpretative guides), as well as to <strong>in</strong>teractive maps, images, audio record<strong>in</strong>gs, video productions of ancient dramas, documentaries,
syllabi, etc. The portal will also be designed to collaborate with other digital classics projects and provide both research and teach<strong>in</strong>g support (APA 2010).