I echo Robert's comments, and only want to add that having the journal 
online is especially helpful to scholars overseas, where university 
libraries often don't carry this particular journal. Some do, but unless the 
uni has a faculty person with a special interest, coverage is spotty.

We also need to remember that even though we do have a business office (and 
they do a great job) the lion's share of the work of the society is still 
volunteer. If putting part of the journal online saves these volunteers 
time, and saves the society money, and expands access, then I'm all for it. 
I did have some difficulty accessing something I was looking for recently, 
but the webmaster provided very quick and efficient help.

I haven't read the newest print issue of the journal, so can't comment if 
there have been recent changes in editorial content or quality. But I have 
no problems going to the web site for reviews, and offering them to the 
public for free is great.

Carol

******************************************
Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Community Archaeology Research Institute, Inc.
Co-Director, Yates Community Archaeology Project
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Houston
1638 Branard
Houston, TX 77006
www.publicarchaeology.org



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Dean" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: SHA Journal


>I feel compelled to reiterate Paul Courtney's comment on the benefit of the
> presence of electronic versions of the SHA book reviews on the internet, 
> and
> include my own.
>
> I make wide use of free electronic sources of out-of-print or hard to
> acquire (sometimes reference-only) books, texts, reports, etc available on
> the internet.  I would be at a loss without them, not to mention I would 
> not
> be able to produce the same level of research.  In fact, there are many
> benefits to electronic versions over paper, including search-ability,
> portability, copying and pasting longer quotations, and reproduction of
> images (important to keep the quality of historic maps and photos, which
> doesn't happen in photocopies of photocopies, etc.)
>
> I applaud any organization willing to put even part of their publications 
> on
> the web (especially free to non-members, as the SHA book reviews are).
> Increased and more public dissemination of information in electronic 
> format
> through the internet is beneficial to better educating others - who might
> not have access to the information otherwise, as well as in preservation 
> of
> information for the future.
>
> -Robert M Dean