How necessary and useful are museum yearbooks? Could they be replaced by a CENTRAL SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?
MúzeumCafé 21.
György Szücs, deputy director of the Hungarian National Gallery: It’s always possible to find something, sometimes quite small things, which can later be put to good use in a footnote of this or that study. As the name yearbook (annales, Jahrbuch, etc.) implies, the original idea was to have an annual publication about an institution’s activities, the analyses it has undertaken and the events which have taken place, with a view to recording scientific, primarily research data in a factual manner and which in its content and typography lies somewhere between a thick volume of essays and a colour magazine. Over several decades they have been modernised, involving changes of printing technology, form and content. The Hungarian National Gallery would like to continue publishing its ‘yearbook’ every two-three years, since such a publication is the internationally accepted place to record its statutory prescribed museum activity and the institution’s scientific work. Of course, this immediately raises the issue of a new name, of possibly extending the genre and of up-to-date visual presentation. At the same time, it’s easy to appreciate and predict the reappearance of the old experience whereby a museum yearbook will never be able to be self-sustaining as some kind of best-seller. For many museums the exchange of publications is the only way to increase their library holdings. However, it should be recognised that the younger generation’s practice of reading by means of computers is becoming dominant in society.
László Horváth, head of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Museums Directorate: The public has two main points of contact with our work – exhibitions and museum events, and publications in connection with them. Both have a large role in determining how visitors decide whether what a museum can offer is important for them. It would be mistaken, however, if this scientifically oriented but understandable perspective is only half understood and colleagues working in a museum consider its accomplishment as something simply to be ticked off. We have a long-standing county museum yearbook called Tisicum. While dealing with this yearbook it has occurred to us that we could change from paper publication to another medium. However, we have come to the conclusion that the two are not the same, since the yearbook serves the public. I can tell colleagues that I am going to send them an electronic attachment, but I can’t say that to the public. The majority of people are still interested in a traditional publication, which you can hold in your hands. We consider it of decisive importance that our museums have a regularly appearing, understandable, high-quality publication, with which we can build relations not only with museologists but also with visitors and the wider public.
Zoltán Nagy, head of the Vas County Museums Directorate: Why and for whom do the county museum specialists every year write scholarly articles? The building of the Vas County Museum, the former Palace of Culture, has been standing for more than a century. A plan for publishing research results and other scholarly writings initially appeared in 1925, in the first yearbook of Vas County Museum. The institute’s statutes adopted on 1 June 2008 stipulate that research work undertaken by employees will have to be verified by an annually submitted peer-read manuscript of at least 6000 words, together with appendices or an exhibition concept or script of the same standard submitted in writing. The foundation document of the museum contains a clause about the basic activity of publishing information relating to the process and results of scientific research. It is obvious that to fulfil this obligation we need our own publication. What is difficult to guarantee, however, is that writing accepted as part of the work process reflects the highest professional standards. This requirement is addressed by the editor obtaining peer reviews. Everyone can decide whether it’s a real gain for us to publicise our work in paper format, or whether we simply feel that without it we would be left with nothing to show.
Ádám Szabó, archaeologist, Hungarian National Museum: In order that a museum is permanent in that after decades or centuries it can assert its existence before its public and its maintaining authority, then the regular publication of a yearbook is essential. On the other hand, a museum yearbook is a prime scientific forum for the institute’s members. To what extent are these necessary and useful for researchers? For those researchers who regard them as the only means of expression, they are clearly necessary and useful. However, yearbooks, given the peculiarities of their genre and editing, don’t relate to any single, specific profession, namely they cannot be categorised in accordance with one professional perspective. Moreover, their number is incredibly large when considering just one country, not to speak of the international level. These two reasons arguably speak against the necessity and usefulness of yearbooks.