Published Resources Details
Conference Proceedings
- Title
- Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992
- Imprint
- Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1995, 124 pp
- Url
- https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/contents.htm
- Subject
- History of Australian Science - General
- Format
- Description
And HTML.
- Abstract
Many scientists still view the historian's enterprise with suspicion, pointing to a list of scientific publications as adequate documentation of their careers, their lives, and their disciplines. Science, in the historian's dictionary, too often translates as something foreign or disagreeable, best confined to a rival faculty; while archives are treasure houses awaiting plunder, guarded by mean-spirited functionaries (archivists). In the world of archives, both scientists and historians are sometimes seen as nothing more than distractions, complicating the professional management task by daring to either create or use records. The problem is not that there are 'two cultures', but that there are many disciplinary fragments, each seeking to establish some sense of identity and authority at the expense of communication. The boundaries established may help define career paths, but what do they do to our understanding of ourselves and our culture?
The Recovering Science conference was an attempt to encourage interchange across these boundaries, to foster communication between disciplinary groups and develop our understanding of how science might be documented in the Australian context. As Gavan McCarthy described in his paper, it followed upon science archives conferences held in 1981 and 1985. Over 120 scientists, historians and archivists, as well as museum workers, librarians, and teachers attended the Recovering Science conference over three days in October 1992.
- Source
- Carlson 1996
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Related Published resources
hasPart
- Alvarez, Amaya, 'Invisible Workers and the Archives of the History of Science', in Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992 edited by Tim Sherratt, Lisa Jooste and Rosanne Clayton (Canberra: Australian Science Archives Project, 1995), pp. 71-78., https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/alvarez.htm. Details