Against the Grain
Volume 30 Issue 2 Article 27
2018
The Scholarly Publishing Scene — The RR Hawkins Prize
Myer Kutz Myer Kutz Assoc., Inc., [email protected]
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Recommended Citation Kutz, Myer (2018) "The Scholarly Publishing Scene — The RR Hawkins Prize," Against the Grain: Vol. 30: Iss. 2, Article 27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.8053
This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. The Scholarly Publishing Scene — The RR Hawkins Prize Column Editor: Myer Kutz (President, Myer Kutz Associates, Inc.)
he RR Hawkins Award is the top prize at have been Macmillan, Scribner’s, Mosby, Gardner Museum-type heist, the library’s exact the PROSE Awards competition, which McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, and Bloomsbury, in physical location isn’t discoverable, nor is the Tis run by the Professional Scholarly Di- business only since 1986, this year’s winner. family’s name, at least not by me.) vision (PSP) of the Association of American (More about that award in a moment.) There Beginning in the 1980s, the library was Publishers (AAP), in conjunction with AAP has been one for-profit / not-for-profit tie — in established to show the historic influences of Communications director Susanna Hinds and 2005 — between Mosby’s Atlas of Clinical the Levant upon Europe. The books come other AAP staff. The award is named after Gross Anatomy and the Oxford History of West- from a very wide geographical area and were Reginald Robert Hawkins, who was chief of ern Music. Single-author, gray monographs collected originally over a 500-year period. the New York Public Library’s Science and have won the Hawkins, as have single-volume Some of them come from nineteenth and twen- Technology Division from 1942 to 1957. The works filled with color illustrations. (See, for tieth century British collections (country-house PROSE Awards Web page tells us that Haw- example, the 2010 winner, Atlas of the Trans- and travelers’ libraries), while others come kins was a member of the National Research atlantic Slave Trade, by David Eltis and David from continental Europe, including German Council, the American Library Association, Brion Davis, from Yale University Press. ) monastic libraries. Bibliophiles located in the New York Library Association and the Encyclopedias used to win, but not lately. I Germany, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Scan- American Association for the Advancement can remember the 1987 win for Encyclope- dinavia, Italy and Spain, both men and women, of Science. He hosted an exhibit on Technical dia of Religion by the late collected these books. So did Books and the War in 1943, edited the library’s Charlie Smith, who ran the royalty, courtiers, church- monthly review publication, New Technical encyclopedia department at men, warriors, politicians, Books, and authored the bibliography, Scien- Macmillan. Charlie gave a and merchants — anyone tific, Medical, and Technical Books Published rollicking acceptance speech apparently who could afford in the U.S. 1930-1944, which was published in in which he recounted the to indulge a deep interest 1946 with the support of the U.S. Department Macmillan accountants’ in Western observations of, of State and an advisory committee of major often expressed dismay at and cogitations about, the publishers, who probably got to know him then. the charges he racked up Levant. This information The bibliography contributed to European li- before he deigned to release can be found in a survey, The braries’ rehabilitation following World War II the 16-volume encyclopedia Arcadian Library: Western and to the acceptance of American science and in toto. Appreciation of Arab and scholarship in Europe, which must have further Few medical books and Islamic Civilization (2011), endeared him to American publishers who were only one architecture book which tells us, for example, seeking to augment their international out- have ever won the Hawkins. that many of the books come reach. (Hawkins also co-authored numerous No technology book won until 2011, with from the private library of Şefik E. Atabey, a books about home mechanics covering topics McGraw-Hill’s The Diffusion Handbook: merchant from Istanbul who collected mainly from arbors and trellises to outdoor fireplaces Applied Solutions for Engineers, a stupendous, while living in Paris and London. (He also and swimming pools. He called his intended useful work by a Schlumberger engineer had one of the largest libraries on the Ottoman audience “capable and fortunate — the home (Schlumberger is the world’s largest oilfield Empire. Sotheby’s auctioned off 49 lots of mechanics — who build things for the fun of services and equipment company), R.K. Mi- Atabey’s sumptuously illustrated travel books it, and (sometimes) because their bank accounts chael Thambynayagam, a lovely man, who five years ago. As of this writing, you can still will not stand the burden of having them built came to the awards luncheon with his striking findSotheby’s three-volume catalogue on both by professionals.”) daughter, a performance artist, and without Amazon and Ebay. It can be pricey.) The Hawkins Award dates back to 1976, his son, a professional poker player. Another There’s a picture of a library on Blooms- when the winner was Cleft Craft. The Evo- meaningful technology book, Alan Turing: His bury’s website. The library appears to be lution of its Surgery, vol. 1: The Unilateral Work and Impact, edited by S. Barry Cooper located in a large townhouse or a stately private Deformity, published by Lippincott Williams and Jan van Leeuwen, from Elsevier, won home. Whether it’s the real Arcadian Library and Wilkins (the publisher wins the Hawkins; just two years later. No journal has ever won is anyone’s guess. I haven’t asked Blooms- recently authors and editors have received cash the Hawkins. bury to confirm whether it is or isn’t. No awards), and written by a well-known facial The Hawkins Award, as well as the many matter. Bloomsbury describes the Library’s plastic surgeon named D. Ralph Millard, who discipline-specific awards and awards for jour- contents as “book after book full of travelers’ died in 2011 at the age of 92. I’ve tried in the nals and electronic products, are announced observations and artists’ images, scientists’ past to compile a list of Hawkins winners, at a luncheon that takes place during the PSP and physicians’ knowledge, literary, scholarly and while the list is complete from 1990 to the Annual Conference, held in early February. and historical influences. This written heritage present, some information from 1977 to 1989 This year, Nigel Fletcher-Jones, head of the reminds us how our different yet dependent has eluded me. (Lists on the Internet go back American University at Cairo Press, who cultures have met, related and learnt from no further than 1991.) This lack of information now co-chairs the PROSE Awards, presided each other for hundreds of years. In addition is testament to PSP’s not adequately publiciz- over a ceremony that differed in one key aspect to rare printed books, the Arcadian Library ing Hawkins winners in the distant past — a from all preceding awards ceremonies: for the also possesses manuscript and documentary situation that PSP has been working to correct. first time, a publication other than a print-on- material of very great importance and rarity.” University presses, including Harvard, paper book or multi-volume reference work At the PROSE Awards luncheon, Nigel Chicago, Oxford, Princeton, Yale, Johns (albeit accompanied in recent years by an Fletcher-Jones praised Arcadian Library On- Hopkins, and California — the first five of online component) won the Hawkins. The line as “superbly designed to fulfill the deeply them multiple times — have dominated Haw- winner was Arcadian Library Online, which worthy and opportune mission of the library.” kins Awards through the years, mostly with makes available to institutions worldwide PROSE co-chair Steven Heffner, VP of prod- humanities titles (some large university presses perpetual access to the 10,000 or so volumes in uct strategy, Wolters Kluwer Health, said he also submit STM titles). For-profit winners, a private family library located somewhere in was impressed with Bloomsbury’s ability to besides Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Europe, possibly in London. (Perhaps fearing a continued on page 48 Against the Grain / April 2018
ike Neanderthals discovering fire, sud- may not have made of Cambridge Analytica Sheryl Sandberg has waxed as elegant as a denly everyone is concerned about Face- data, Facebook’s data use in campaigns is not harp, and as earnest as a nun over how much Lbook and its manhandling of our privacy. news. The Obama campaign made use of it, our privacy means to her and how she and FB The #deleteFacebook movement is now a and about one million Facebook users gave the do not take it lightly. Did anyone seriously thing, or, in the more common vernacular, campaign access. Furthermore, FB and Google believe this? Even if they did mean it (and it trending. As the kids might say, “Seriously?” sought out Obama’s campaign, essentially is possible they did), how could they keep that Where have all these people been for the last asking to be mined for his benefit. There was promise when everything … everything can be twenty years? Suddenly everyone who is any- not then, and hasn’t been since, any hue and hacked and exposed? one is now all atwitter since they discovered that cry. While Obamites are claiming purity in this We have always told our patrons that the Facebook (FB) sold data to Cambridge Ana- matter, it’s a distinction without a difference. web, whatever its manifestations or modality, lytica — let me rephrase that more accurately Obama valorized the use of social media and is like a postcard sent through the mail. The — since Cambridge Analytica “acquired” data most politicians after him have followed suit. only difference is that they are sending it on 90 million Facebook users. Now famous Politics notwithstanding, the point is, as through a global post office for all the world people everywhere, like Elon Musk, are storm- Scott McNealy famously (or infamously) said to see. I have been writing about the web’s ing the barricades as if only now their privacy in 1999, consumer privacy is a “red herring” privacy problems since the early 2000s and has been shorn and left in tatters. and that “you have no privacy anyway. claim, as others have, that social media’s Musk is so unhappy that he immediately Get over it.” Although Zuckerberg privacy controls are like Swiss cheese. deleted all Tesla and SpaceX Facebook pages. was mute on the issue for days, he FB and all the rest only magnified Although we have been repeatedly reminded finally came forward with his mea those problems. how smart and on the edge Musk is, I find it a culpa: “We have a responsibility I know I’m preaching to the bit disingenuous that he’s shocked — shocked, to protect your data, and if we choir here. I doubt anyone in I tell you — that Facebook would monetize its can’t, then we don’t deserve our profession is unaware data on you and me and the other billion or so to serve you.” There’s an of these problems. But users. Did they think that data was never going understatement if ever there #deletefacebook strikes me to be mined by anyone? was one. The fact remains as a hilarious response (as- that if FB had done what suming, of course, that the Musk is not alone. Brian Acton, once it promised, and the FCC movement isn’t really more owner of WhatsApp that Facebook bought for had done what it is legally angst over the Trump pres- a mere $16 BILLION, has told all his users to supposed to do, none of idency and an overweening delete their FB accounts, ostensibly laughing this would have happened. desire to find a way to deny all the way to the bank. The list goes on and But FB has always required this presidency). The deci- on: Sonos took a more temporary stand, taking an opt-out clause for anything that involves sion to be on FB or any social media is to make down its accounts for one week (a more weak- your real privacy. Ditto that for every other a decision you have your work, your friends, kneed approach?) Cher, Jim Carrey, Mozilla, social media online. Now, Zuckerberg faces your whole self, exposed and monetized for the and many others are all in high dungeon over testifying before Congress why this happened. benefit of that social media. While it may not FB’s cavalier use of their data. Wait. How did It should be obvious. be a dollar for data exchange, it is certainly a this happen? Wasn’t Facebook an altruistic data quid pro quo of some kind. company from the beginning? If I had a nickel every time an online per- sonality said that it “values your privacy and So, let’s dispense with the #deletefacebook Riii-ghhhh-tttt. it’s very important to us,” I would almost be and admit that we all should have known better. Apart from many anti-Trump folks who are as rich as Zuckerberg. FB, Twitter, Google, It’s not as if we weren’t forewarned. angry over the use the Trump campaign may or and so on, have all made such protestations.
astronomy chemistry, natural sciences, and In his Hawkins acceptance speech, Blooms- The Scholarly Publishing Scene medicine. That knowledge entered Europe bury Publishing CEO Nigel Newton said, “I from page 47 over centuries and through various routes, but am pleased for both our Content Services di- nowhere more so than through multi-cultural vision, who digitized the Arcadian Library’s balance “digital function and convenience” and to a point religiously-tolerant Umayyad collection and launched this award-winning with “some sense of the physical interaction Spain which became the center of dialogue. digital archive platform, and our new Digital with the artifacts.” These comments are es- Resources division, who have taken Arcadian pecially noteworthy inasmuch as scholars are “Arcadian Library Online presents clear Library Online to academic and scholarly unable to examine the Arcadian Library’s evidence for this transmission, and for the libraries and institutions worldwide and are holdings in person. subsequent cross-pollination of ideas between bringing its riches to new generations at a time the Middle East and Europe, through the manu- In a note to me later, Nigel, a publish- when the need for inter-cultural understanding scripts and books within the library’s collection ing veteran, who holds a PhD in biological has never been more acute.” which are reproduced here in high-resolution anthropology, expanded on his comments: detail, and in a readily searchable form in As a long-time and still active PROSE “Arcadian Library Online sheds a timely English and Arabic, including marginalia and judge, I’m pleased that the professional and light on the oft-forgotten transmission of expert commentaries. scholarly publishing industry has honored scientific and medical knowledge from the such a wonderful project, which is particularly Arab and Persian world to Europe, and does “The platform is superbly designed to important at these fraught times. In addition, so magnificently. The Islamic world inherited fulfill the deeply worthy and opportune I’m proud that my fellow judges were able and translated much of the surviving wisdom mission of the library to explain part of the to recognize that an online publication was of ancient Greece, but also added greatly to intellectual debt that the West owes to the worthy of the Hawkins award. that knowledge in areas such as mathematics. Islamic world.”
48 Against the Grain / April 2018