I have been asked to consider turning my blog into a book, and I'm now pondering the idea. It's true that I have written a lot of stuff over these past years, but I'm not convinced enough of them would be non-internet-specific enough for a print version.

It is certainly less work than writing a book from scratch - but it's also sort of non-ordered, non-sequitur, and containing a lot of filler posts or link lists.

And I'm just not sure whether anyone would really want to buy a version of this blog in form of a book. So I would be grateful for any feedback - what do you think about blogs turned books? Are there any articles I wrote on that blog that you'd like to have in a print version? Or should everything rather stay as it was?

I had a really nice and very intense day of sitting in the library and reading and taking notes yesterday - which felt absolutely fine.

I have started to take notes for each book that I store in my bibliography database so I can have an excerpt and check again if necessary where something came from, and I now somehow sort of regret that I haven't started this years and years ago. I'm still working with EndNote and will continue to do so, I have never gotten onto good terms with Zotero, though it seems to be a good (and free) choice. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have also never really tried hard to get onto good terms with Zotero.)

And let me state again that I am a huge fan of databases, both for bibliography and for pictures - because having a searchable, tagged or keyworded heap of information is much better than having an unorganised, non-searchable heap of information.

So if you have pictures, or collect pictures for research reasons, and read books for research purposes, I thoroughly recommend you to get a database thingie - there are heaps of free ones on the Internet - and at least note down the following: who took the picture (if it wasn't you) or the book it came from (including the page) if it's a scan, and for books you read the author/editor, book title, year, and a short note of how you liked it. You can put in much more - excerpts, keywords (both for book and picture), picture captions, a note of how you liked the book, further citation traces to follow, where the book is located, when you looked at it, or whatever would be good but is not on my radar at the moment. But having at least a note of the minimum things will mean you being able to remember whether you had that book in your hands already... or not.

Having said that, I should probably spend a little time on the care and feeding of my databases today.

Nobody can do research without money. Because researchers, like all other people, need to sleep (preferably somewhere dry and not too cold), to wear something (yes, really) and to eat something (not only chocolate, though it should be in there somewhere if you ask me). And all that needs some money.

If you are more or less involved in museums, archaeology research facilities or similar institutions, you will know that money is always scarce there. I remember being a student helper when I was still studying; we'd get paid for doing necessary preparatory work for papers such as taking and sorting slides, or helping when there was a conference. There was scarcely enough money to pay for the work that really needed to be done. Nobody doing a phd would have a chance of getting paid from the Uni - either you got funding somewhere else, or you were self-funded. You had a chance to get a work space (as in "a table") in one of the department's rooms, though they were limited, and you had to bring your own computer.

There's no law that says good research cannot be done with a low budget. But a low budget is severely limiting research in several ways: time, resources, possibilities, presentation.
Someone researching topic X with no money for it has to provide not only for the necessities of life, but also for the research. Books and articles are expensive, as are trips to libraries further away. All this has to be paid for - or our researcher has to do without. Time has to be spent on other, paid work. No funding also means little possibility to use newer analysis methods. And finally, no funding as in "you pay for going to that conference* all by yourself" means fewer possiblilties to exchange knowledge and experience with other researchers, limiting not only that one person's research, but also its impact. (Even worse when the conference has no funding and thus publication takes ages and ages and ages. Ask me how I know.)

Why am I writing all this? The next summit of the EU heads of states on 22-23 November 2012 will be a decisive step in determining the EU research budget for the next seven years. The conditions are not favorable: the financial crisis has put severe constraints on the national budgets and several countries, in particular the "net-payers", are demanding cuts on the total EU budget. Research and innovation will compete with other policy priorities.

Fourty-two Nobel Laureates and five Fields Medallists (something like Nobel, but for Maths folks) have written an open letter urging the EU to keep funding research. This has turned into a petition that you can sign here - and then join me in hoping this will be enough to keep the EU from cutting budget.

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* The conferences are not as pricey as, say, medical conferences usually are - but still: you need to sleep somewhere, you need to eat something, you need to get there and back again, and pay the conference fee. Conferences (and I so love going to them) are one of the big spending points in my budget.

After the end of a summer and market season, it's the same procedure every year: Washing the things that need to be washed, setting apart the things that need repairing or, worse, replacing; cleaning and oiling the wood stuff before putting it into storage; figuring out where goes what thing for the winter.

Well, this time, I sort of got the idea that I could use the opportunity to thoroughly re-order the stashing places for all the living history/market stall things. Add to this the fact that I have more tools now (spinning wheel and tablet-weaving frame), this has become quite necessary. The re-ordering also means that I have finally tackled to sort and organise my work books better. There were times when looking for a specific book meant just grabbing it from the shelf. Then came the times when I had to search for a little... but nowadays, the number has grown so much that looking for a book, but not finding it happened more than once. That irks me, plus I tend to get panicked that I lent that book to someone and have never gotten it back.

The result of all this? More chaos. But hopefully only transitory chaos that will lead to a new and better order for books and things! And less stuff on the floor, in temporary not-so-well-suited-storage places, or in random stacks on my desk.

I've mentioned the new Lab for Experimental Archaeology quite a bit on this blog already, mostly in context with the Textile Forum, and I hope to have reasons to mention it in the future at least as often. It's a wonderful concept that fits in perfectly with the Textile Forum and with a lot of the work regarding spinning and textile techniques that I have been doing, merging crafts knowledge and practical craft with scientific methods and archaeological research.

The LEA consists of two big workshop rooms, one of them fitted with installation for blacksmith work. It will have a special kiln for firing ceramics, there's a laboratory extractor hood for stuff you don't want to breathe, a smallish but comfy kitchen to eat, drink, and merrily conspire or read papers, a work/lab room that fits three desks and several cabinets with lab equipment and glassware, the office for the two people running the whole thing, a separate hall for papers, seminars or other things needing a large indoor space, and very generous space outdoors, partly graveled and covered, partly open. All rooms (well, except for the office, obviously) are multi-purpose, with lots of moveable furniture and moveable equipment to be able to make space where it is needed. And those working or researching a project can be housed directly at the lab: There are two bedrooms, each sleeping up to five persons, with lockers for valuables, and the necessary sanitary installations. Altogether, the place feels very welcoming too.

I've already posted that the opening was a big success, as was the experiment we did, which we hope to present at a conference as soon as possible. Meanwhile, you can have your own look at the premises of LEA (at least some of them) and at the things that happened at the opening weekend. A local TV station sent a team to film the opening, and here it is:



Both linked things (the LEA page and the film) are in German, but you can just look at the pictures... and you will see me spinning in the film as well!

The market in Tannenberg was a sunny, relaxed and very funny ending to a nice summer season of 2012. Now it's really getting to be autumn, the days are noticeably shorter, it's getting cool early in the evening, and the leaves are turning yellow and red.

I'm back home and now there's the usual work stuff to be done after a season - cleaning, checking and repairing all the things used during the summer, re-organising storage to make enough space for the new things (such as the Great Wheel), thinking about changes or additions to the assortment of goods to sell, and so on.

And in addition, there are some exciting ideas for new projects in my mind and some of them already half in planning... it will stay interesting. For today, though, all I have planned is to clean as much of the medieval gear as possible.

Technically, I have a lot to write about - the experiment at the Forum; my happiness with how very well my Great Wheel works (it's workout for the right arm, by the way) and how well it is received by the public; how nice it was at LEA; the garden in its autumn beauty and many more things.

However, tomorrow is when I leave for Tannenberg, and I have neither the time nor the energy to write about all that right now. There's also still enough stuff to prepare that I will not be able to pre-blog for the next few days. So no blogging tomorrow, and no blogging until October 4th (when I will be back from the season's end event, and hopefully a bit restored again).

And now... packing and preparing.