SC - A Soup for the Qan....revisited once again

[Michael F. Gunter]

In a message dated 6/15/00 11:02:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jenne at tulgey.browser.net writes:

<< I'm assuming that you are classing SCA sources and recipe books with
 redactions as secondary sources, yes? >>

Many SCA sources and redactions contain errors as well as misinformation. Not 
all but there are some that do. We are talking a NEW person not someone that 
has been at it a while. I have many books in my collection but I also know 
when information such as the 'rotten meat' or 'baking powder' issues are 
found they are wrong.
 
 <<Could you elaborate on that statement? To an academic librarian, at least,
 that doesn't make sense. How would you know that the area of medieval
 cuisine has expanded if nobody is publishing scholarly works about these
 new discoveries? >>

I mentioned nothing about 'discoveries'. I did mention expansion in the area 
of cuisine. I also said there were a few notable exceptions. Those exceptions 
include Scully's works, etc. Thankfully, SCA folks tend to share their 
knowledge so reliance on 'published' works from the scientific community is 
not an issue.  As a reference librarian, I am sure that you are aware that 
not every 'scholarly' work is equal in usefulness or truthfulness.

 Also I am sure that you are aware of the fact that sources like class 
handouts, private research, and recipe sharing seldom if ever make it to a 
reference library. Mores the pity but that is the way of things. So far as 
official publishing is concerned, you must be aware of the fact that many of 
us simply cannot get anyone interested in publishing our work and we do not 
have ample financial resources to do it ourselves. A lot of this is because 
some of us haven't paid for the privilege of hanging a fancy title on our 
wall, some is commercial interest, some is a refusal by many members of the 
university circuit to take our work seriously.  Exceptions being yourself, 
Dr. Gloning, Dr. Friedman and many others on this list. There are many 
reasons.

Many of the advances have occurred in this forum and were it not for people 
like Stefan those resources would be unavailable.

I think it is not a good idea to immediately send a student off to the 
reference library before they have any knowledge of what to take with a grain 
of salt. More advanced students and researchers, yes.

Ras