The Cabinet of Curiosities of Scholarly Journals
This project aims to build a collection of material archives from the scholarly journals involved in the Revue3.0 project (and potentially beyond the circle of partner journals), in order to document the evolution of their editorial practices, both in terms of production and dissemination. The goal is to gather objects that have marked the history of each journal—and more broadly, of scholarly publishing itself: first issues, landmark issues, offprints, promotional stickers, photo albums from launch events, as well as screenshots of early platforms, graphic design evolutions, and more. The resulting collection may be showcased in exhibitions held during various Revue 3.0 events, as well as in an online exhibition.
Issues
This project aims to create a memory of the editorial practices of scholarly journals that, over the past 40 years, have undergone a digital transition.
It will document not only the history of these journals prior to their digital remediation, but also begin to trace what already constitutes a history of digital publishing.
The project seeks not only to collect the "editorial curiosities of journals" (an entire generation today, for example, is unfamiliar with what an offprint is), but also to capture the voices of editors and researchers who have shaped the history of scholarly publishing.
This material—which can easily be turned into an outreach-oriented deliverable to help publicize the Revue3.0 project—will also serve as a valuable resource for the researchers involved.
Technical challenges
Two potential challenges:
- Finding a space to store and ensure the preservation of the objects
- Setting up a digital exhibition
Research activities
- Creation of an archive with indexed objects
- Development of a controlled indexing vocabulary
- Interviews with "donors" about the objects entrusted to the project
- Digitization of the objects (photographs, screenshots, scans), with IIIF-compatible indexing and annotation
Deliverables
- Creation of an archive collection of journals and editorial objects or "curiosities," which could later be deposited at the BLSH
- Creation of a sound archive, based on short interviews or reactions related to the collected objects
- A virtual exhibition to explain and promote the Revue3.0 project to a broader audience (beyond the academic community)
- A turnkey cabinet of curiosities that could accompany Revue3.0 presentations at conferences and symposia
