Historic Brass Society Journal

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bcschipper
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Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by bcschipper »

Does it still exist? The website shows content till 2003. It lists empty slots till 2017 together with a note that “(t)he HBSJ volumes from 2012 on have not yet been placed online.” It also says that the tables of content from Volumes 24 to present can be downloaded there but there is no link to click for downloading. Everything looks like not being maintained. Very strange.

It would be bad if it is gone ...
HowardW
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by HowardW »

bcschipper wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 4:29 am Does it still exist? The website shows content till 2003. It lists empty slots till 2017 together with a note that “(t)he HBSJ volumes from 2012 on have not yet been placed online.” It also says that the tables of content from Volumes 24 to present can be downloaded there but there is no link to click for downloading. Everything looks like not being maintained. Very strange.

It would be bad if it is gone ...
The HBSJournal is alive and well. In fact, I've just recently started proofreading articles for the next issue (no. 32, 2020).

I can't speak for the website. It's always been a bit neglected, although we do actually have an editor who is responsible for it. I guess there is just not very much happening these days.

Howard
bcschipper
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by bcschipper »

Thank you for letting me know. I am glad to hear that it is alive. However, I am puzzled. Where to read it? I searched the catalog of the largest public university system, The University of California: Nothing. I searched catalogs of some other universities (like UoToronto etc.). If I can find an entry, then it points to the website of the Historic Brass Society website and says it is online and open. But this website does not even show tables of contents for volumes after 2003. Does it mean that authors "publish" articles in a journal that is just accessible to a handful of insiders via some secret access? What is the meaning of "publication" when it is not public? Maybe it is behind a paywall of the society's website. But why would anyone want to pay if it seems even doubtful from the website that the journal still exist?

The website says that it "is fully indexed in RILM as well as many other music databases." But it seems abstracts in RILM appear behind a paywall, which somehow defeats its purpose of making abstracts public. Anyway, major libraries do have access to RILM. The most recent article of the Historic Brass Society Journal listed in RILM is from 2015. The DOIs of all "recent" articles there cannot be found which means that the publisher did not active them yet or they are all listed wrongly in RILM.

Maybe all it means is that I am just too stupid to find most recent articles of the journal. Nevertheless it demonstrates (at least to me) that it is easier find to primary sources on for instance Belcke and Queisser on the internet nowadays than articles of the Historic Brass Society Journal, which seems absurd to me and defeats the purpose of the journal I believe. In the age of the internet, it is very easy to make things public.

On the Facebook page of the Historic Brass Society I found a questionnaire to members in which they ask among others about the future of the journal. This means that the society itself is not sure about the future of the journal. I hope that they keep it as an academic journal and make it accessible.

Why not post the tables of content in this forum?

What alternative journal outlets exists on historic brass? The Brass Bulletin and Brass Quarterly seem all discontinued. I believe this just leaves the ITA Journal, which sometimes publishes some articles on the history of trombone. This journal is easily accessible to trombonist but not really peer-reviewed I believe.
HowardW
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by HowardW »

I just did a quick search with WorldCat and found six libraries in California that have the HBSJ:
UC Berekley Libraries
Stanford University Libraries
California University of the Arts
The Clarimont Colleges
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Southern California

in addition to several dozen other libraries in the US and Canada.

RILM has always been several years behind (with all publications, not just the HBSJ).

Brass Quarterly and Brass Bulletin are long gone. The ITA Journal occasionally has articles on historical subjects, but is indeed not peer-reviewed.

The HBS itself is currently going through some reorganization, and our founder and long-time president has announced that he is steppng down. Moreover, everything is done by volunteers -- there is no paid staff, not even a part-time secretary. So some things simply get neglected, unfortunately. But we have managed to bring out the journal without missing a single issue for 31 years so far.

Howard



bcschipper wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 3:53 pm Thank you for letting me know. I am glad to hear that it is alive. However, I am puzzled. Where to read it? I searched the catalog of the largest public university system, The University of California: Nothing. I searched catalogs of some other universities (like UoToronto etc.).
bcschipper
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by bcschipper »

Thank you very much. I searched the UC catalog again and found it at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. So I was too stupid to search (I mistakenly searched only our UC Davis catalog instead of system wide.)

Now all of those library just have print copies. I can not physically browse the print copies on shelf because they are closed due to Covid19. For online access, their library websites refer to the website of the Historic Brass Society, which does not seem to offer online access after all (not even tables of content for recent issues so that I would know what print copy to order for pick up from libraries who plan to offer contact-less pickup in late summer despite being closed). So I think it still fair to say that in the age of internet access to the journal seems fairly limited (especially during current times).

Let's hope with the reorganization of the HBS they decide to keep the journal as an academic journal and put it fully online.
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LeTromboniste
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by LeTromboniste »

bcschipper wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 5:59 pm Thank you very much. I searched the UC catalog again and found it at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. So I was too stupid to search (I mistakenly searched only our UC Davis catalog instead of system wide.)

Now all of those library just have print copies. I can not physically browse the print copies on shelf because they are closed due to Covid19. For online access, their library websites refer to the website of the Historic Brass Society, which does not seem to offer online access after all (not even tables of content for recent issues so that I would know what print copy to order for pick up from libraries who plan to offer contact-less pickup in late summer despite being closed). So I think it still fair to say that in the age of internet access to the journal seems fairly limited (especially during current times).

Let's hope with the reorganization of the HBS they decide to keep the journal as an academic journal and put it fully online.
Howard will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think new issues get released in digital format. They always come out in hard copy. To my knowledge it's only older issues that were digitized. Which isn't exactly abnormal for this kind of publications.

I'm surprised the libraries listed earlier (pretty major institutions) don't have contactless pickup or at least a mail order system for Covid yet. Libraries here have had that since the second week of the shutdown or so.
Maximilien Brisson
www.maximilienbrisson.com
Lecturer for baroque trombone,
Hfk Bremen/University of the Arts Bremen
bcschipper
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Re: Historic Brass Society Journal

Post by bcschipper »

LeTromboniste wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 4:06 am
Howard will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think new issues get released in digital format. They always come out in hard copy. To my knowledge it's only older issues that were digitized. Which isn't exactly abnormal for this kind of publications.

I'm surprised the libraries listed earlier (pretty major institutions) don't have contactless pickup or at least a mail order system for Covid yet. Libraries here have had that since the second week of the shutdown or so.
Good for you. I guess our university libraries wait for the next quarter to begin.

I am not sure why it would be technically difficult to put PDFs on a website. Just make sure that you embed all fonts. The authors put lots of effort into their work. Let them be read.

Anyway, I hope the visibility of the journal will increase.
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