FAQ
0. Do you still maintain this archive?
No. We had a good run, but like all unfunded labours of love, it fell by the wayside. I have much more work than time these days (welcome to mid-career?) and I can’t do this site too. Will it come back some day? Maybe but don’t hold out for it. These FAQs are, thus, archived too.
1. These articles are all very new, are you going to add older articles?
At the moment, Donna is the only person entering in new articles into the database which she does in her limited spare time. This means, for the moment, only new articles are being entered. For a precious and short time, our spectacular intern Fanni Gyurko added slightly older articles to the database (mostly from 2014), which are being incorporated now. Sadly, until we are funded or set up a volunteer system, we only have the new.
2. Can I send you an article for your database?
No, the site is no longer maintained.
3. Your articles are primarily in English and Spanish. Why not other languages?
The contents of the database are at the mercy of our own language limitations. Donna only speaks Spanish and English and, as she scours the web each morning for news, only scours in those languages. You’ll see some Hindi and Tamil articles as the online press in those languages tends to tag stories in English which makes them easier for us to find. Beyond this, articles in other languages enter the database when we chance upon them. Hopefully, either with some funding or a volunteer system, we’ll be able to expand beyond English and Spanish.
4. I’ve found a mistake in the database, how do I let you know?
Yikes! Sorry about that. We go through a lot of articles and mistakes creep in. Plus Donna is a notoriously bad speller. But alas, posterity has it! It is what it is.
5. Why don’t you have the full text of the article in your database?
Copyright. We didn’t write the articles so we aren’t posting the articles. The best we can offer is a very short comment about the contents of the piece. You’ll have to go to external sites to actually read them all.
6. What is a “permalink”?
From Wikipedia: “A permalink (portmanteau of permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific web page, often a blog or forum entry that has passed from the front page to the archives, or that results from a database search. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, it is less susceptible to link rot.” What is link rot? It’s our worst nightmare.
Links to media sources are notoriously ephemeral. They are, quite simply, not dependable and we want you to have the best chance possible of actually reading the articles in this database. Thus we save every article we can to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which creates an independent saved version of the article.
The system isn’t perfect. Some news sources and websites block the Internet Archive from making copies of their site (and those news sources should be ashamed of themselves). Others allow the Internet Archive to make copies for a while then rescind their permission (those news sources should also be ashamed). Thus even the so-called “permalink” might disappear. However, by saving what we can to the Internet Archive, we increase the chances that there will still be a readable version of the article out there for you to use.
7. The link is dead!
Use the permalink!
8. The permalink is dead!
Sigh. We warned you this might happen. We’ve presented the full bibliographic details of every article in the database so I am sorry to say that your next recourse is to contact either the author or the news outlet about obtaining a copy. Before you do so, however, search for the title of the article in a browser as it may have been moved.
9. Do you have full copies of these articles? Can you share them with me?
Yes we do and no we can’t. We need to stay on the right side of copyright law here and thus we can’t distribute any full text, even though we save them for our own research. We suggest you save your own text and PDF version of the articles that matter to you and your work.
10. Can I have a full copy of your database?
Alas, no. We aren’t hosting that.
11. Do you need volunteers? Interns?
Yes, but we aren’t set up for that yet. Thanks for asking though!
By and large, we are very worried about the casualisation of heritage work, the value in working for free so that someone else profits, and the CV value of volunteering in this sector. The only reason we would consider accepting volunteers for this project is that we are volunteers ourselves: this is unpaid. Plus we don’t really have a problem with users of a service giving back to a service. Still, we aren’t set up for that yet.
What we won’t have anytime soon is internship positions. We had a spectacular paid intern for a little while but that was special funding via the University of Glasgow for a Glasgow PhD student. Unpaid internships that are not directly part of a degree programme (and thus for University credit towards a degree) are not what any of you should be doing with your time and are not what any organisation should be offering.
13. Do you accept students?
Yes! See this blog entry as a start.
14. I’m the victim of an art crime, can you help?
Probably not. I know it is often hard to find help when it comes to these sorts of crime, but do understand that we study the phenomenon, we don’t solve cases. In our professional capacity we do various forms of consulting, usually for the media, governments, and NGOs/intergovernmentals, but again, this isn’t crime solving. We’re academics, not the police, and you need the police. And a lawyer. We’re not lawyers either.