[Bell Historians] Re: A trawl through the archive

[Carl S Zimmerman]

At 08:00 +0100 2005/05/26, David Bryant wrote:
> But there is necessarily a limit to how much bell history the RW 
>can publish. It doesn't allow for the publication of long articles 
>is the way that a journal does. Perhaps the internet is the answer - 
>it is certainly widely used for publishing bell history research.

Just so. Starting a new journal, whether it be independent or a 
supplement to an existing journal (such as the RW), requires at least 
two things: a supply of good material and a supply of people eager 
to do the work of editing and publishing. In spite of the voices 
raised in support of the concept, I haven't yet seen evidence that 
these two requirements have both been met. Ceertainly the RW is 
publishing interesting material when it is available.

What is the real driving factor here? Is it authors wanting a place 
to be published, when existing channels are closed to them? I can't 
believe that, in view of the facilities that the Internet makes 
available. In fact, I'll go so far as to offer Webspace to anyone 
who has something interesting to write about tower bells. (Some 
restrictions may apply.) It won't be on a UK-based Website, but it 
will be accessible to every Internet user in the world. That's a 
bigger potential audience than any print publication gets.

Or is it consumers wanting interesting new material to read? If so, 
then put your money where your mouth is (as the saying goes) and help 
to prove that a market exists for such material. Pay for your own 
subscription to the RW if you aren't already doing so; buy the new 
publications that come out from time to time. If you aren't able to 
afford that, then contribute your time by helping others in their 
research of things historical and campanological.

Those who are unwilling to do any of the above aren't contributing 
anything useful to the discussion. The rest of you - keep on writing!

Carl
(Web publisher, RW subscriber, book buyer)