Former KAS President receives Computer Lesson

When the Secretary of the Publications Committee offered to give me a thirty-minute lesson on the new Archaeologia Cantiana DVD, I accepted the challenge. I slipped the DVD into his laptop and waited. Up came a screen inviting me to "Click here to open the DVD". One click produced a list of volumes from I to CXXV – just what I like – a good list of Roman numerals. After all, what could be more appropriate for an historical society than Roman numerals. But I digress.

I clicked at random on Volume XVII. The lefthand side of the screen, labelled 'Bookmarks', immediately changed to the volume’s table of contents, and the righthand side of the screen displayed the title page in the familiar gothic lettering sadly abandoned by a former editor in 1975. But again I digress.

I clicked on George Payne’s article 'Roman Leaden Coffins' discovered at Plumstead. I was just getting interested in the details of ornamental moulding on Roman coffins, when I was surprised to encounter the full-page illustration of a skeleton grinning back at me from the remains of the coffin. Deciding that this was a dead end, I returned to the table of contents, clicking on articles about Cobham Hall and Rochester Bridge. Everything was there just as it appears in the books with the dark blue covers on my bookshelf. The only difference was that I was clicking on the computer keyboard instead of turning the pages.

My tutor told me to click on the tab labelled 'Pages' and the lefthand side of the screen immediately changed into miniature thumbnail sketches of every page in Volume XVII. Whenever I clicked on a thumbnail sketch, the full-size page appeared on the righthand side of the screen. Everything was there – text, diagrams, maps, and coloured illustrations – just like paging through the original volume. The only difference was that by clicking on the magnifying glass icon I could enlarge the illustrations and zoom in on the intricate details.

One click took me back to 'Bookmarks', and a second click took me back to the list of volumes. I was just getting ready to explore another volume, when I discovered that my lesson was drawing to a close. To my surprise, I had enjoyed my brief flirtation with modern technology. When my tutor casually mentioned that I could easily print any article or illustration without having to use a photocopier, I was hooked. I can hardly wait to impress the current KAS President with my new expertise. I might even have to buy a computer.

Paul Oldham