A & S standards

[I. Marc Carlson]

<Jovian Skleros<Scot Eddy <seddy at vvm.com>>>
>...Here is a question I have had and I still get from some of my 
>shire (Tempio) friends. What is documentation? Why is it needed?/What 
>purpose does it serve? What should be included in it? How long should 
>it be? Should it be changed? If so, how? When?

As someone who has judged A&S entries in the past, to me, *basic*
documentation is like a basic Newspaper article, it establishes
Who, What, Where, How and Why.
	Who made it, and, if reproducing from an original, who made the
            original as well?
	What is it? Does it have a function?
	Where would it have been made (space and time)?
	How would it have been made, versus how *was* it made?
	Why should I believe you? What sources did you use?  (Any place 
	    you make a statement, expecting me to accept it as fact, 
	    you'd better be able to support it somehow.  N.b., there is 
	    some dissagreement among people I have spoken to about judging 
            regarding the use of an honest "I don't know" statement in 
	    documentation.  I am willing to accept it if you can demonstrate 
	    that you have a reasonably good understanding of the topic and 
	    of basic research techniques.  Some other judges don't seem as 
	    tolerant of this as I am, which is really saying something 
	    considering how hard-nosed I can be about sources..

>There always seems to be so much that I _need_ to put into my 
>documentation, but I have heard that too much is too much.

If you can adequately answer all of these points on a 3x5 card that's
great.  I've seen people *fail* to answer all of them in many page 
papers.

(BTW, you *do* know the difference between "Primary" and "Principle"
Sources, as well as between "Primary", "Secondary", and Tertiary" sources
don't you?)

A final note, for me, at least.  Don't lie to me, or try to hide sloppy
work under a pile of BS.  If you say it's a reproduction of a "period"
item, don't use modern materials or techniques, unless you tell me right 
up front that it was done that way.  If you tell me that "I made such a
thing THIS way, because I (like the effect/think it looks more medieval
than some other way to do it/think it will last longer/was too lazy to do 
it the hard way)" you may get some criticism for it, but not nearly as 
much as you will when I look at it and see that you obviously don't think 
that the people judging the competition are going to have the brains
God gave a grapefruit.

I. Marc Carlson, Reference Librarian    |LIB_IMC at CENTUM.UTULSA.EDU
Tulsa Community College, West Campus LRC|Sometimes known as:
Reference Tech. McFarlin Library        | Diarmuit Ui Dhuinn 
University of Tulsa, 2933 E. 6th St.    | University of Northkeep 
Tulsa, OK  74104-3123 (918) 631-3794    | Northkeepshire, Ansteorra