Monica,
--- On Thu, 11/11/10, Monica Hall <[email protected]> wrote:
In any case even a facsimile is not a substitute for seeing
the real thing.
Well, yes, for performers, it really is. I think most of us on this
list
are looking at this from the perspective of a performer rather than
doing
musicological research. Us performers MUST use non-original copies as
the
basis of our work. Few will be allowed to bring one's instrument into
the
reading room to trash through old manuscripts just to see what sounds
cool. And few libraries will let you take a rare book home or out on
tour. Those replacement fees on lost sole copies are murder and the
librarians are real sticklers when you write fingerings in or spill
coffee
on 'em! ;-) (I know, there are the rare cases in which performers are
allowed to give select performances from original manuscripts and such.
This is obviously not the norm.)
And even for scholars, a facsimile may be the most practical option in
many cases. If one is in Europe, going to look at an original that is
housed 150km away may not be that big of a deal, but for those of us in
America and elsewhere, traveling to that part of the world to check out
a
forgotten flyspeck or watermark may not be that vital if it is of minor
concern to our thesis.
Chris
Dearie me! I guess you are right. Someone did tell me they had been
allowed to take a rare book back to their hotel room once but of course
being an honest person he returned it. And we weren't very thrilled if
people wrote their fingerings all over things, nevermind spilt coffee on
them.
But at the end of the day all these services have to be paid for - and
nobody likes paying tax. Someone mentioned the British Library. At
present use is free but regularly they raise the question of whether
readers
should charged for admission. And digitalizing the whole collection would
cost more than flying to the moon. In the present economic climate - no
chance. How do you propose to finance it?
Monica (as ever sceptical)
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