Archaeologia Cantiana - The Future
In the spring 2008 Newsletter, Society members were invited to send in their views to a small team, established to review the future of Archaeologia Cantiana (AC) – its size, format, content etc...
We are pleased to report that a reasonable number of members replied and these replies have been much appreciated. The Review Team (Elizabeth Edwards, Kate Kersey, Terry Lawson and Chris Pout) have now considered all the replies and have reached the following conclusions.
Above all, it seems clear that the majority of members who replied wish the Society to continue to publish AC in its current form – i.e. at the same page size and with the blue hardback cover. Over 80% of the respondents expressed their wish that this should be the case.
A few members requested investigation of an alternative format, for example an A4 page size and a softback cover. We could investigate the possibility of producing AC in such a form for those members that would prefer it. However, for the few copies required this seems likely to be a rather expensive option.
Many respondents expressed their satisfaction with the ‘150th anniversary’ issue of the DVD of back copies of AC from 1858 to the recent past. We suggest that it should be possible to repeat this process on a regular basis, with each DVD perhaps covering 10 past years. This conclusion has been passed to the Publications Committee (who will obviously need to be sure, in due course, that the DVD format is still the most appropriate technology).
A few members suggested that some of the more detailed archaeological reports submitted for the 2009 volume will be placed on the Society’s website with authors invited to submit a summary for the actual publication. We hope that members will send in their reactions to this experiment in due course.
A few members asked if coloured illustrations could be included. This is, of course, expensive, but will be considered where appropriate.
Finally, none of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the balance of the contents. We are aware that our membership spans a wide range of particular interests and that, therefore, not all of the articles will be of interest to everyone. It would appear that successive editors have been highly successful in balancing these interests.
The Review Team would like to thank all those members who contributed to the review and hope that you will understand that it has not been possible to reply individually to each of you.
Copy Deadline for the Next Issue is Monday 1st September