Safe in the shed.

Caring for historic farm machinery.

This is a publication by the New South Wales Heritage office quite a beautiful publication put out in 2001. Page 16. Quoted. My comments are underlines. Done with speech recognition so its not perfect!

Tips for preservation.

Historic farm machinery can usually survive for long periods where it belongs, as it as long as there is basic security, protection from pests and shelter from the elements. Generally, we don’t leave machinery outside and exposed. The following tips will hopefully store and preserve historic farm machine, in particular if it is no longer used for stall in music.

Paintwork, leather, felt, would, paper.

Throw away the paintbrush and avoid pouring fluids on the machine! Painting ruins old finishes in sign writing and can diminish the research potential of the machine, Losing evidence of how was used and made. It might cover details where the machinery was manufactured or scars from its use. Seek advice on other reversible products that can prevent rust.

Store machinery away from direct sunlight to protect the original paintwork and material stop keep gutters clean and ensure that Gerald drainage keeps the storage shelter dry

keep vegetable matter or reminiscence grain that might attract pests or keep a sample of the remnants in a single back with the catalogue documentation. If you don’t know what the machinery was used for, this will provide some clues. In

wheels tires and axles.

Put wheeled vehicles and farm implements on axles, so that the wheel is clear of the ground or floor. This reduces the potential for rust or insect damage from the floor ground contact metal stands are better than what and should have enough base area to be stable when the item is raised.

The stands will wait rubber tyres which could cause cracking or flat spots let down pneumatic tires, so they will last longer.

Internal combustion engines and mechanical into.

Where you can, drain old oils and fuels. I disagree with this is a blank statement. It needs some riders.

Use appropriate lubricants for functional machining that are run from time to time. Obviously I believe that all objects should have inhibited lubricants in the and all objects should be if possible turned from time to time even if they’re not run.

Using inhibited lubricants to protect the chemical into terminals from corrosion when they are in storage companies can advise on suitable products. Penrite in Oz.

Make sure any areas that hold water are drained, including radiators and cooling tanks. Drain and open spaces which are designed to be open to allow allow thorough drying. I’d like to see more use of wet storage with inhibitors if possible.

Often pockets of trapped water can be drained using a piece of cloth that acts as a week. This is a good idea if you have to.

The publication then goes on about security and safety.

Use specifications and the "Charter of Turin"

I was researching use specifications for museum motor vehicles and of course came across the charter of Turin. The “riga” for automobiles!

It’s on the 2016 The Fede ration Internationale des Ve hicules Anciens web but almost impossible to find due to the wondrous “flash” interface!

A copy is posted below as text.

I hope this more accessible text is of use to museum professionals.

-------------------------------

Fédération  Internationale  des  Véhicules  Anciens The  Turin  Charter Ratified  by  the  General  Assembly  of  FIVA Munich,  October  27th,  2012 

INTRODUCTION 

The  Fédération  Internationale  des  Véhicules  Anciens  (FIVA)  is  the  world federation  of  historic  vehicle  clubs.  It  supports  and  encourages  the  preservation and  responsible  use  of  historic  vehicles  as  an  important  part  of  our  technical  and cultural  heritage.  Historic  vehicles  are  significant  in  their  role  as  means  of transport,  as  witnesses  to  their  historic  origins,  the  technical  state  of  the  art  of their  period  and  last  but  not  least  for  their  impact  on  society.

The  scope  of  this  Charter  includes  mechanically  propelled  road  and  non---rail land  vehicles.  A  vehicle  is  considered  to  be  historic  once  it  complies  with  the Charter  and  the  applicable  FIVA  definitions.  The  Charter  may  include  buildings and  related  artieacts  to  historic  vehicles  and  their  period  of  operation,  such  as factories,  fuel  stations,  roads  or  racetracks. For  many  years  the  owners  of  historic  vehicles,  the  curators  of  historic  vehicle collections  and  the  restorers  of  historic  vehicles  have  been  very  successful  at salvaging,  preserving  and  keeping  historic  vehicles  in  operation. 

This  Charter was  approved  by  FIVA  to  provide  guidance  for  decisions  and  treatments  in relation  to  historic  vehicles. 

The  Turin  Charter  unites  the  guiding  principles  for the  use,  upkeep,  conservation,  restoration  and  repair  of  historic  vehicles. This  Charter  is  based  on  and  inspired  by  UNESCO's  Venice  Charter  (1964),  the Barcelona  Charter  (2003,  historic  ships)  and  the  Riga  Charter  (2005,  historic  rail vehicles). 

CHARTER 

Article  1. 

Aim

The  aim  of  this  Charter  is  to  preserve  and  safeguard  the  history  of  vehicles including  their  engineering,  form,  functions  and  documented  histories  and  their many  and  diverse  relationships  with  society  and  social  environments. To  understand,  appreciate  and  ensure  the  preservation  and  operation  of  historic vehicles,  including  their  use  on  public  roads,  it  is  important  to  use  the  research methods,  scientific,  historical  and  technical  knowledge  available  and  involve  the organisations  and  facilities  working  in  this  sector. 

Article  2. 

Future Preservation,  restoration  and  any  related  work  processes  are  aimed  at sustaining  historic  vehicles  as  both  technical  artefacts  and  witnesses  of  transport history  and  culture.  It  is imperative  to  pass  on  the  methods  used,  material knowledge  and  work  processes  to  future  generations.  We  also  aim  to  preserve the  special  knowledge,  expertise  and  skills  related  to  the  manufacture  and operation  of  such  vehicles. 

Article  3. 

Care Permanent  and  sustainable  care  is  essential  for  the  survival  of  historic  vehicles. Responsible  use  of  historic  vehicles,  including  on  public  roads,  is  important  for their  preservation.  It  is  the  only  way  to  fully  understand  and  pass  on  the traditional  knowledge  of  driving  and  maintaining  them  for  future  generations. 

Article  4. 

Position It  is  beneficial  for  the  preservation  of  historic  vehicles  that  they  are  seen  as  an integral  part  of  public  life  and  perceived  as  a  contribution  to  our  cultural heritage. It  is  important  and  desirable  that  they  can  be  used.  However,  in  order  to  use them,  historic  vehicles  should  not  be  modified  more  than  necessary.  Unavoidable modifications  should  not  interfere  with  the  historic  substance.  As  a  matter  of principle,  they  should  not  alter  the  vehicle's  period  engineering  and  appearance. 

Article  5. 

Processes The  preservation  of  historic  vehicles  can  require  interventions  or  restorations  to different  extents.  Preservation  means  the  care  and  prevention  from deterioration  or  damage,  by  which  the  present  condition,  individual  and memorial  quality  of  a  historic  vehicle  or  object  is  safeguarded. Conservation  includes  all  acts  serving  to  secure  and  stabilise  the  vehicle  or  object that  do  not  alter  the  historic  substance,  parts  and  materials.  Conservation treatment  will  not  put  at  risk  the  object's  historical  or  material  documentary value  in  any  way.  It  serves  exclusively  to  prevent  or  at  least  delay  continued deterioration.  Usually,  such  measures  are  not  visible  on  the  surface. Restoration  is  the  process  of  replacing  missing  parts  or  areas  with  the  aim  of displaying  an  earlier  state  of  the  vehicle  and  goes  further  than  conservation. Restored  areas  should  discreetly  blend  in  with  the  existing  historic  stock,  but remain  distinguishable  on  closer  inspection. This  is  different  from  repair,  that  stands  for  the  adaptation,  refurbishment  or replacement  of  existing  or  missing  components.  Repair  makes  a  vehicle  fully operational  again  and  may  not  take  into  account  the  authentic  substance belonging  to  the  vehicle. Preservation,  conservation,  and  restoration  are  specialised  processes  aimed  at safeguarding  and  displaying  a  vehicle's  engineering,  aesthetic,  functional,  social and  historic  value.  They  should  aim  at  understanding  and  considering  the original  design and  the  historic  background  of  the  individual  vehicle.  They  should  be  based  on respect  for  the  individual  historic  entity  and  information  found  in  authentic documents. 

Article  6. 

History Any  changes  and  modifications  to  a  vehicle  which  occurred  during  its  ordinary life  span  and  altering  its  condition  as  originally  delivered  are  testimonials  of  the vehicle's  history  and  should  be  preserved  as  such.  Therefore  it  is  not  necessary to  restore  a  historic  vehicle  in  a  way  that  adjusts  its  look  and  technical  features back  to  the  appearance  of  the  manufacturing  date.  A  restoration  that  would return  a  vehicle  to  the  appearance  of  a  certain  period  should  only  be  attempted with  careful  examination  of  historical  records  or  thorough  planning. Components  and  materials  inserted  to  replace  historic  parts  in  the  process  of  a restoration  should  be  identified  with  simple  and  permanent  markings  to distinguish  them  from  the  historic  substance.  For  replaced  parts,  FIVA recommends  the  marking  system  attached  to  this  charter  (see Appendix) 

Article  7. 

Accuracy During  the  restoration  of  historic  vehicles  historically  accurate  materials  and work  techniques  are  preferred,  unless  such  materials  or  techniques  can  no longer  be  used  because  of  safety  concerns,  lack  of  availability  or  legal prohibitions.  Especially  in  the  conservation  of  historic  substance,  traditional materials  may  not  be  adequate.  As  elsewhere  in  the  field  of  restoration,  modern materials  and  working  techniques  may  then  be  used  instead,  provided  they  have been  proven  adequate  and  durable  in  experiments  or  tried  in  practice. Article  8. Appearance Any  modifications  to  a  historic  vehicle  required  outside  of  its  ordinary  lifespan should  be  integrated  discreetly  and  respect  the  original  structure  and appearance.  Such  modifications  should be  reversible.  It  is  recommended  that  any important  original  parts  removed  should  be  kept  with  the  vehicle  for  later  use and  to  serve  as  reference  of  their  original  existence  and  make. 

Article  9. 

Planning Any  work  undertaken  on  a  historic  vehicle  should  be  planned  systematically  and documented  in  an  appropriate  manner.  These  records  should  be  maintained with  the  vehicle. Article  10. 

Archives Any  persons,  facilities  and  organisations  involved  in  the  preservation, conservation,  restoration,  repair  and  operation  of  historic  vehicles  should  take appropriate  steps  to  protect  their  records  and  archives. 

Article  11. 

Status Institutions  engaged  in  the  preservation  and  transfer  of  knowledge  or  specialist skills  required  in  the  preservation  and  operation  of  historic  vehicles  should  seek recognition  by  international  and  national  governmental  authorities  as  cultural heritage  and  institutions Archives  consisting  of  documents,  drawings,  photographs  or  other  media  and artefacts  relating  to  historic  vehicles  should  be  cared  for  as  part  of  the  cultural heritage.

Turin  Charter  Working  Group  /  

FIVA  Cultural  Commission:  Thomas  Kohler, Gundula  Tutt,  Rainer  Hindrischedt,  Mario  De  Rosa,  Alfieri  Maserati,  Stefan Musfeld  and Mark  Gessler 

Appendix 

Recommended Marking  System The  system  uses  the  following letters  for  permanent  marking: 

NB  ="newly  built"  an  accurate  as possible  a  copy  in  terms  of  form,  materials  and make,  reproduced  directly  from  a  documented  original) 

FR  ="free  reconstruction"  (reconstruction  without  using  any  historic  model  in terms  of  form,  material  or  work  technique.  The  part  however  fulfils  the  technical function  of  an  historic  component  utilised  earlier) 

CS  ="conservational  stabilisation"  (a  later  structural  reinforcement  added  to stabilize  the  historic  substance). We  recommend  the  indication  of  the  year  of  restoration  /manufacture  of  the replacement  part  with  the  two---letter  code.

2016 The Fede ration Internationale des Ve hicules Anciens

Conservation of Oxide coated Metals by David Hallam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Conservation Management Plans significance and Riga Charter

Its interesting working with LTO’s (Large Technological Objects) that don’t quite fit into the “site” category because they are too small and move but are way too big to fit the “normal” criteria.

Each has developed there own derivations of The  Burra Charter

As this project _as yet unnamed as I have yet to get permission to name it. We will see how this affects the development of a revised significance statement and CMP (Conservation Management Plan).

Below Riga stripped from pdf and edited in Markdown. Sort of fun.

/dlh.

 

Riga Charter

European Federation of Museum & Tourist Railways Fédération Européenne des Chemins de Fer Touristiques et Historiques Europäische Föderation der Museums- und Touristikbahnen THE RIGA CHARTER Adopted by unanimous vote of FEDECRAIL members at their Annual Meeting held at Anse near Lyon on 16th April 2005 having been first proposed in Riga, capital of Latvia. The Riga Charter v10en.doc, Okt.05 1/4 European Federation of Museum & Tourist Railways Fédération Européenne des Chemins de Fer Touristiques et Historiques Europäische Föderation der Museums- und Touristikbahnen

INTRODUCTION

THIS CHARTER HAS BEEN CREATED TO GUIDE DECISIONS THAT WILL RESULT IN HERITAGE RAILWAYS BEING ABLE TO BE ENJOYED BY FUTURE GENERATIONS. HERITAGE RAILWAYS HAVE BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL IN RESCUING, RESTORING, PRESERVING AND OPERATING HISTORIC EQUIPMENT. WE HOPE THAT THIS CHARTER WILL HELP EVERYONE INVOLVED TO SEE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAKING WISE DECISIONS. IT HAS BEEN CREATED TO ACCOMPANY THE SEVERAL OTHER CHARTERS RELATING TO HERITAGE CONSERVATION

PURPOSE

The Riga Charter is a statement of principles which guide the conservation, restoration, maintenance and repair and use of historic railway equipment, which is being operated. It is hoped that this will help our members make wise decisions.

DEFINITIONS

• Heritage Railways referred to in this Charter, may also include historic or preserved railways,museum railways and tramways, working railway and tram museums and tourist railways, and may extend to heritage trains operating on the national network and other railways.

• Railway Equipment referred to in this Charter may include buildings or infrastructure which form part of the railway ensemble.

• Preservation is the process of keeping an object safe from harm and decomposition, by maintaining it properly so that its condition, quality and memory is retained.

• Conservation is the process of stabilising the condition of an object without compromising the historical or material evidence in any way.

• Restoration is the process of repairing or replacing missing parts in an attempt to regain an earlier state of the object. The restoration may increase the strength of the object before work started, and may generally go further than conservation. It should neither be invisible or glaringly obvious.

• Repair is the process of adjustment or replacement of the components. The specified standard of mechanical condition is achieved irrespective of the historic integrity of parts that may be altered or discarded.

Article 1

Scientific and technical skills, together with the facilities needed to preserve and operate historic railway equipment, within a culture of safety, should be used to safeguard railway heritage.

Article 2

The aim of preserving and restoring historic railway items and associated working practices is to safeguard them, whether they are significant technological artefacts, evidence for transport history or a means of perpetuating traditional skills.

Article 3

Maintenance of all aspects of their equipment, and operation on a regular basis is essential for the survival of heritage railways. Operating historic and valuable railway equipment with traditional operating procedures, and presenting it to the public, is an important means of interpreting that material.

Article 4

Identifying socially useful purposes for historic railway items will help facilitate their preservation, but such use should involve the minimum change necessary, and such changes should be fully reversible.

Article 5

A heritage railway should reflect not only the importance of its own role as a transport system, but also when appropriate, its own historic origins and its impact on the community.

Article 6

The process of restoration is a highly specialised operation. Its aim is to preserve and reveal the aesthetic, functional and historic value of traditional railway equipment. It should be based on respect and an understanding wherever possible of the original designs and specifications.

Article 7

The original or historically correct materials and techniques should be used in the conservation of historic railway items, unless they can no longer be adopted for reasons of safety, legislation or availability. In such cases appropriate contemporary substitutes for such materials or techniques should be used.

Article 8

The restoration of a piece of historic railway equipment does not require that it must be restored to its original as built state. Some equipment acquires its historic importance later on in its working life. Restoration to any period should be executed only after thorough consideration of historic records, and available documentation covering the chosen period, after which a restoration plan should be written and adopted. Material that is replaced with new should be readily identified as such with a simple permanent marking system.

Article 9

Added mandatory safety equipment should if possible blend harmoniously with the conserved or restored item but the fact that it is an addition or alteration to the original make-up of the item should be clearly indicated.

Article 10

Any other necessary later modifications to the item that are introduced for whatever reason should be as sympathetic as possible to the make-up and appearance of the original item. Ideally any such modification should be reversible and any significant original parts removed should be retained for possible future re-use.

Article 11

Every stage in the conservation or restoration work on a historic railway item should be systematically planned and recorded. The resultant record of these processes retained for a minimum of the life of the item.

Article 12

All bodies involved in the repair, restoration, maintenance, conservation and operation of heritage railways and railway equipment, must make proper arrangements for the conservation of their records and archives.

The Riga Charter v10en.doc, Okt.05 2/4 European Federation of Museum & Tourist Railways Fédération Européenne des Chemins de Fer Touristiques et Historiques Europäische Föderation der Museums- und Touristikbahnen

Conservation of Oxide coated Metals by David Hallam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Copyright

Conservation of Oxide coated Metals by David Hallam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Timelines - data visualisation

Data visualisation is a problem when you are looking at the history and technology of materials. Different things happened at different times in different companies in different places throughout the world.
Information on the adoption of particular technologies is hard to come by from outside the industry being studied.
Patents are great as markers but they say nothing about adoption. They are just like cats marking the territory.
If a technology is unpublished , unpatented and secretive then it is even harder to track. One source is the “old boys” doing reminiscences as they retire or are asked back to speak at a dinner about “outdated technologies”. But be prepared for may “about 20 years ago” unquote statements.
Turning this data into a sensible format is also problematic. After many false starts I found Aeon and from this can produce a image file.

  Zinc - very drafty

Nickel timeline - very drafty
More later...
Conservation of Oxide coated Metals by David Hallam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

release early release often

release early release often _as a publication method_

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Release early, release often (also: time-based releases, sometimes abbreviated RERO) is a software development philosophy that emphasizes the importance of early and frequent releases in creating a tight feedback loop between developers and testers or users, contrary to a feature-based release strategy. Advocates argue that this allows the software development to progress faster, enables the user to help define what the software will become, better conforms to the users' requirements for the software,^[1] and ultimately results in higher quality software.^[2] The development philosophy attempts to eliminate the risk of creating software that no one will use.^[3]

This philosophy was popularized by Eric S. Raymond in his 1997 essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar, where Raymond stated "Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers".^[4]

This philosophy was originally applied to the development of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, but has also been applied to closed source, commercial software development.

The alternative to the release early, release often philosophy is aiming to provide only polished, bug-free releases.^[5] Advocates of RERO question that this would in fact result in higher-quality releases.^[4]

The aim of publication is to get accurate, reliable information out into the working community as quickly as is possible so it can change work methods and approaches. The current methods of peer review that are based in the old print journal tradition are not really useful in the digital age. The publishing houses are trying to consolidate their grip on digital content so you have to access the most up to date content from behind a “pay wall”. For those of us in the heritage community this leads to the dumbing down of our practice as we loose access to the latest data and discussions. We and up with “Haves" and "Have-nots”. Those with access to data and those who have no access.
If we look at the software industry we can see it is divided into the propriety software that exists behind a “paywall” of propriety secrets  and the open source which is often free ($) and to which you have access to the source code under a GPL licence.
Heritage information should be like this. Free and Open.
Ok so why "release early release often _as a publication method_” ?
Well if you are “publishing” on a public platform such as a wiki or a semi public blog that requires membership you can publish several versions and ask for peer comment between each version. This way you can get the information out in a timely way and also have some review method. Yes most will take your publication at face value or just mutter polite nothings behind your back. But also you will get some real useful critiques. Oh and a bit of daft spam!
I will be adopting this method with my recent Oxides work. Enjoy and please critique. Oh you will have to sign in - reduces spam :-)

Surfaces of modern metals in Heritage conservation questionnaire

This questionnaire is an attempt to access how the heritage conservation community understands the surfaces of modern metals. It is being conducted by David Hallam as part of a project  on the Recognition and History and technology of oxide coated modern metals.

Oxide coated modern metals

What are modern metals?

Any metal or major new alloy grouping commercialised after 1851. They may be the core of an object (as in stainless steel) or just the very surface as in metal coated plastic.

I consider oxide coated modern metals to be those that are primarily used in a bare state in such a way that the oxide is the primary interface with the environment. These metals maintain their stability thru the passive nature of this oxide. The oxide may be as a result of the alloy constitution or may be synthetically produced.

Examples are;

• Anodizing
• Zinc plate
• Phosphating
• Chromating
• MBV coatings
• Sheridizing
• Electroplated Tin
• Monel Metal
• German Silver
• Zinc-anneal
• Parkerizing
• Black Oxides coatings
• Electroplating
• Electroless plating

If you are a conservator, restorer, heritage manager or conservation scientist please go to;

http://goo.gl/forms/rS8xfPTSFo

And fill out the questionnaire.

Thanks

 

David Hallam

Wrapping up the Getty.

This week is wrap-up week.

I think I’ve achieve most of what I want. Working as a scholar at the Getty has been an amazing experience. I would recommend anyone with a serious conservation project that can be done succinctly within the timeframes should apply for a GCI scholar term.

When you arrive at the Getty you are told that the three months will disappear very fast, they did. As ever you start your project with certain parameters and ideas about what you’re going to get out of, your project then evolves as you gather information and results. Mine went through several stages stages of expanding and contracting. I now have some half decent timelines for metal finishing processes are massive database of PDF files which will be turned into a substantial bibliography and history and technology article. I also have a wide-ranging selection of conservation papers for the conservation review article. I’ve played with various forms of digital scholarship and have started to refine my processes even further.

On the Mac I’m using Zotero, Evernote, Scrivener, and Dragon. Most of this is transferable to linux. I’m pretty sure Dragon will work in wine.

Over the next few months I will post timelines, parts of chapters, bibliographies, and draft articles to this website. I will be asking for your candid non-critical feedback. I will be trying very hard to adopt the open source principle of release early and release often so initially I don’t care if there are problems with a page or information I don’t have I will put that in the post hoping that other people can help.

I’m looking for people who can help me decipher some of the German, Chinese, Japanese and East European articles I have. These articles I think outline the development of metal finishing in their home countries so it would be good to add these to a timeline. Currently my timelines are worldwide but I would like to make some of them regional.

I’ll be sad to leave here on Friday but I’ll be going on a road trip up to Seattle with my daughter to see some of the US. That should be great fun.

 

Digital workflow

One of the things I’m trying to do whilst I’m here at the Getty is to improve my digital workflow. I stopped worrying quite as much about what software I use and what operating system I use and I’m tending to concentrate more on the output.

I’m trying to ensure that my workflow can be used on any platform, Mac OS, LINUX, Windows. My basic workflow can be divided as follows;

• mind mapping
• bibliographic
• note taking
• writing
• editing.

 Mind mapping.

I use mind mapping to plot out what I think I’m going to write, and then to plot out each section. My choice of mind mapping software is really only limited by the requirement that it can output as opml. I find that my first mind maps are really exploring my thoughts as they currently stand are and they change quite drastically over the course of my project. As an aside comment I also use mind maps for doing such things as stream proposals short reports Project planning in fact many things. It is essential that the mind mapping software also has a facility for adding notes to each of the nodes in the mind map the note field is equivalent to a paragraph in a written work. My current software of choice on a Mac’s thoughts, and on Windows or Lenox its simpleminded.  I find that I thoughts is nice and clean and has all of the export functionality that I need. It pains me that it is a Mac only product and is definitely not open source. Simple mind by contrast is not really very clean and particularly if you hook it into dropbox you can find that your files are all over the place and you’re unsure of which version is which it also is not open source. Open source products such as freemind, plane mind or Docear are also available.

At the end of this process I will have a very draughty outline of how I feel the paper is going to be written.

Bibliographic

I try to do the majority of my bibliographic work online. Gone are the days when one could wander into a library and just find some books in the catalogue and then browse the shelves. Wherever possible I try to download the bibliographic data from wherever I have done the searches. On this current project I am finding the Getty’s online primo search to be invaluable. It allows me to look at what the Getty has in its collection first. Download the bibliographic data. And then spread the search wider.

For scientific papers I also use scope this and Google scholar. Please also don’t forget to use Google or being because both of these will capture when an academic has posted their papers to their own webpage. This can avoid the hassle of having to find something that is behind a pay wall. I tend to give open access periodical is a preference.

When I am searching the web I tend to capture my search results into Evernote and have a folder for each project the great thing about Evernote is that you can use it’s quite substantial search characteristics. The other wonderful thing about Evernote is that it will be accessible from any device that is network connected. Devon think is a product many people on Macs use but I find it too limited as it only works on one device and operating system.

Bibliographic software is quite crucial. I find that Zotero is best. Yes it doesn’t have a sexy interface but you can use it for collecting both bibliographic data from papers and also cataloguing appropriate blogs and academic websites. For capturing websites you need to use as tarot within Firefox. When I’m not capturing websites I tend to use is Zotero stand-alone.

Note taking

 If I’m not very careful I tend to end up with notes scattered all over the place, notebooks, digital notepads, scraps of paper and wood documents. What I have managed to do with this project is limit my note taking to Zotero, and within PDFs filed in Zotero.  I use is Zotfile to extract annotations, and store them in Zotero. I feel find that when I am reading a book or a large paper that it is useful to use speech recognition to record my comments in a text file. That text file can then be pasted into is Zotero as a note.

Obviously as I go through lit reading the literature and taking notes I will be having some brainstorms. Depending on where I am I will record these in Google Doc, or Google notes. From there they can easily be copied to’s Zotero  or they can be used to modify my mind maps.

Writing.

I use scriveners as my writing program of choice. All of my notes will be copied into the research section of my Scriven file. The outline of the mind map will be exported as OPM L and will provide the basic structure for my ritual written document. My notes bibliographic data and other thoughts can now be used to assist with my writing.

Again use voice recognition rather than typing for a majority of my written work. Currently I use Dragon product for my voice recognition. I must admit I get very frustrated with its constant demands to be updated and its constant inability to run on the present version of Mac OS without being updated. For some reason the cost of the updates always seems to be about the same as the cost of a brand-new version. Dragon would have to be one of the least open and most frustrating organisations to deal with as soon as there is a viable option I will use it.The main problem with using voice recognition software is that people think you’re rather mad sitting in a room talking to yourself. It can also be quite distracting for fellow workers in an open office space.

Editing.

Once I have finished my writing I normally check the document over in Scribner making sure that all of the sections are falling as I want them, stations are inserted and that they flow in the way I want them. I then compile the document. This time I’m going to try and use the RTF function of is it Aero to identify my citations and insert them after compilation. We will see how this goes. I expect to do the final checking and editing in libra office having used scriveners compilation to libra office.

 I will also use the compilation function to export drafts of sections which can then be posted to this website for external comment. Again and experiment.

Let’s see how these last two sections go.

 

Salt and Sugar

Coffee, Salt and sugar.
I’m amazed how much salt and sugar is hidden in average American sorry United States food. To make it even worse it’s hard to tell where this material is hidden because the labeling seems to give a priority to calories and lists everything as a percentage of the average daily income which is assumed to be 2000 cal. So things like sugar and salt are then listed as a percentage of the average daily in take for a mythical portion.
I used to moan about food labelling in Australia because it wouldn’t list many things by name but this system means that you never know whether one food has more salt or sugar than another because each of them tends to use different portions in their calculations. The Australian system of doing it as a percentage of the product by weight may not be ideal but it beats the hell out of this crazy system over here.
I think the only way of avoiding excess sugar salt and other additives is to buy directly from the producer or to make it yourself even then I wonder...
Mind you I must admit I am having a wonderful time discovering or rediscovering things about the United States and its consumption of food.
Did find decent coffee though. At a Vietnamese bakers. See around soon!

.. as a Getty Scholar

Amazing….

How often in your professional career have you been told .. “Be selfish” this time is your time to do research! Well I’ve now been here at the Getty as a Scholar at GCI for 6 weeks out of my 3 month stint. I have heard this mantra for some time now.. Today from the head of GCI and yes they’ll  mean it.. Because if you are here e for 3 month you can get amazing things done - but - you do need to be selfish. 3 months is not long but.. it is long enough and can spread the projects further.

I mean how often can you ignore emails and just bury your head in a supurb real and virtual library ignoring all else? How often can you ask staff if you can talk about analysis possibilities and get a . "Yes once I return from *** ". we will talk as that sounds interesting. This place is - buzzing with activity. And ideas.

Then that night its a scholar “potluck” dinner so you have to provide something. Preferably edible. Eventually you end up in a heated discussion on the pros and cons of open source access to data with a bunch of art historians. Magic.

We did not agree but did debate -

The opportunity to actually ignore the world for 3 months and focus on “one” project is magic. The Getty program is amazing as it on brings together artists, art history scholars and conservators under one roof of the scholar housing. Interchange is going to happen. no matter.

As a modern metals conservator who specialises in technology objects I feel very privileged to be here - I am not from the art world - but I do not feel out of place. The digital scholarship push unites us in ways we could never have seen a decade ago. It’s magic.

This makes the potluck dinners magic and eventful as we debate the end of academic process as we know it …. currently

Thank you Getty.