Teaching Domesday Book February 17, 2009
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books, Medieval.Tags: Anglo-Norman, David Roffe, Domesday Book, Jonathan Jarrett, Lanfranc, medieval church, teaching
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While Dr Jarrett has been busy listening to seminars on Domesday Book, I’ve been trying to teach the damn thing, again. Hopefully, this was the last time I shall ever have to do so, but Domesday Book is rather like a nasty, slimey something lurking under a stone. Pick up the stone and there it is, flapping its folios at you in a extremely menacing manner, with the remains of students and junior faculty who have tried to make sense of it and failed, scattered round about. (more…)
After journal rankings what next? November 28, 2008
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books, Debate.Tags: higher education policy, intelligent people being idiots, journal rankings
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Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the news for those that haven’t read yesterday’s Times Higher Ed, that those crazy people at the European Reference Index have logically concluded that the next step from a journals’ ranking is to rank monographs! (more…)
The perils of publishing: another one of Gesta’s rants. February 28, 2008
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books, Debate, Medieval.Tags: publishing, tenthmedieval
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Or how to screw something up monumentally. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but whose pen is mightier: the author’s or their publisher’s?
History and fiction November 1, 2007
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books, Boundaries.3 comments
‘Why do you study the middle ages?’; ‘What’s so special about the Normans?’; ‘Why are you an historian?’. These are all questions I get asked on a regular basis, alongside enquiries like ‘History is so boring: what on earth got you into it?’. Questions like this are at the heart of an entry in the Guardian’s book blog. (more…)
Are students allergic to libraries? August 30, 2007
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books.Tags: journals, libraries, research, students
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A recent report on the BBC website reveals there has been a 22% long-term decline in visits by students to their university and college libraries. This equates to an annual fall of 3% apparently. Now as Reivers would confirm there are lies, damned lies and statistics, but does this study tell us anything? (more…)
An index: the final frontier May 18, 2007
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books, Boundaries.add a comment
How do you compile an index? Where do you draw the line between what you put in and what you leave out? These and similar questions have been occupying my mind for the past few weeks as my book reaches its final stages before its publication date in November. (more…)
Access denied! The British Library and budget cuts February 26, 2007
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books.1 comment so far
A very quick post to highlight the effect that governmental budget cuts will have on the British Library.
1) Readers charged for access to the reading rooms
2) Cut backs in the collection policy
3) Reduction in the BL’s status and capacity to function as a major research library.
Sign the petition now to stop this before it becomes a reality!
Irrational hatred and literature February 9, 2007
Posted by gesta in Books, Debate.add a comment
In despair at the utter mundanity of copy editing and the ignorance of students, I turned to the Guardian Book Blog for solace. Unlike many other Guardian blogs, the people who leave comments seem to write in something that is recognisably English and refuse to engage in bitter and personal attacks on the post’s author (well, mostly). Even today, when the topic for discussion is authors you love to hate, the replies are on the whole considered. (more…)
Monograph finished December 22, 2006
Posted by gesta in Academia, Books.1 comment so far
I have finished the book in time for Christmas and it has been posted to the publishers. I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction and it was a pleasingly large and, I hope, scholarly pile of paper that was squeezed into the envelope. I have no idea when it will be coming out, but finally, I can start something new. I’ll be blogging about my latest projects in the New Year.
Organizationally challenged November 8, 2006
Posted by reivers in Books.1 comment so far
Both gesta and myself love books, although our tastes are quite different. How we store books is also different; I am a devotee of the FAFSFS (First Available Flat Surface Filing System) – my office at work is absolute carnage. gesta, on the other hand, once worked in a library; her System actually deserves capitalization and is far too complex to explain here, even if I could. Worryingly it would seem that gesta is not alone…
