Meeting 2010 May 14

Points for the discussion on May 14


1. How to get all the Annual Reports on line?
2. Is it a good idea to turn these pages into a book?
3. What to do about too many emails?
4. How to improve navigation round the site?
5. How to improve the look of the site?
6. What new pages for the site?
7. Anything else?
8. Would you recognise them?



  1. How to get all the Annual Reports on line? (Richard Hardwick)
    •  JKAB said off list "Make sure all the official papers of NVRS are preserved and available
      This includes published papers and articles as well as Annual Reports"
  2. Is it a good idea to turn these pages into a book, and if so how? (Richard Hardwick)
    •  JKAB said off list "Have a more informal archive of memories. This could be a web site"
    • Lesley Currah said (off list) "Are we thoroughly convinced that electronic media (with all their rapid changes) are going to be as durable as books - is doubt about this what's behind the suggestion of actually producing a book?  Costs a lot in work and money, but you have something solid to show for it."
    • See also the list of DIY histories (further down this page)
    • And The comments by P R Shewry and Roger Wilkins
    • How? Richard H  would favour doing it in pdfLaTeX. It could look like this or this (downloadable pdfs)

    My email to the group summarised lots of other replies, as follows
    • Hilary: It is a nice little book, but Graham's right - a lot of work! I suspect that there are not too many current staff with time to think about it, and former staff are probably pretty well occupied too.
      Perhaps just continue to develop the website for the time being?
    • Graham: The GRI book looks interesting but loads of work & time I guess went into its production.
    • David Gray: the Hurley document looks good and i like the style .
    • David Wurr: I think this is an interesting, well-written and nicely produced publication but I do not think that we should try to emulate it in full.
      I think it would be worthwhile to write the political bit, which you are particularly interested in (and very well done by GRI),  describing the development of NVRS and the various influences on it.
      However I do not think that it would be easy, fair or proper to write contributions on  the components of NVRS (et al) research because they would inevitably be dominated by the individual perspectives of those prepared to write them, who could be a very biased selection of former staff. I think it would be better and easier to produce a list of publications by members of staff to indicate the diversity of activity we covered.
    • Jane: I looked at the IGER book a while ago.  It's very good but it must have been really difficult to put together and a lot of work must have gone into producing it.  I personally think the web pages are fine.
    • Alan: No doubt someone should do it, but not me. Too busy translating!
    • Jayne: It's very well presented, but to me it reads a bit like the Annual Report, so personally I think your present format is preferable.

  3. What to do about too many emails? (JKAB)

  4. How to improve navigation round the site? (Hilary Fraser)
    • Richard H. says - I made a new Home page  . Is that better?
  5. How to improve the look of the site? (Hilary Fraser)

  6. What new pages for the site? (see also To Do list)
    • Lesley Currah said "Start a new photo album page, 'personalities of the 1980s' "

    • Alan Scaife said "each of us who is still kicking and willing to write about one sheet of A4"

    • Duncan Greenwood had suggested "I wonder whether it might be worth considering
      how the NVRS was set up Grower initiative? Government pressure?
      What were the terms of reference? Who was responsible MAFF or ARC?

    • Andrew Entwistle said "Analysis of the economic value of the research done; to GB, the world?
      Something on the change in staff management in the mid 70s, specifically  breaking down the barrier between research leaders and experimental  officers.

    • Richard Hardwick said "A list of everyone  who ever figured on a staff list....
      and see also the Monks Wood Old Codgers page at:- http://www.monks-wood.org.uk/5.html
      Lesley Currah added (off list) "To obtain good historical coverage, could we treat the 'history' in 10 year periods, maybe with a small group for each 10 years, to collect reminiscences from those who may remember the era but are not computer literate (for the 1950s and 1960s anyway) - and to involve more people active at HRI in the 1990s and 2000s?"


  7. Anything else?
  8. Would you recognise them?


Hilary Fraser

Richard Hardwick

 ...