Publishing books is an art in itself. I have written eight books in the domain of heritage (each presented in white frame if with translated versions). I have taken part in some other nine or ten, and that was the right and easier thing to do. My curatorial career ended with one book on visual arts and very many articles and exhibition catalogue texts.
Writing articles is the wiser solution for a career. If one is not a genius, which is my case, books tend to be difficult to find willing publishers and once published they get printed in a small number of copies so they hardly merit the effort. Besides, the conventional science imposes impossible formal obligations to even qualify for the scientific text, so much so that even the sientific quality of them suffers. Unconventional and impatient in my supposed creativity I often ignored the form. That has a price. Besides, writing and publishing outside one's language remains a terrible disadvantage, as some may know. Though Esperanto of the present, English still needs to be correctly used so as not to disturb the reading and that gets complicated and demanding. The books I have written are presented in a single slide by which I have often presented myself to the audience, most recently the last September at Shanghai University (2023). None of those books ever reached them.
Publishing my entire writings at https://www.academia.edu/ and this site makes them more accessible. My attitude was always that once one is paid for lecturing that includes writing. Consequently, when texts are there, they should be made freely accessible. That may be less obvious or even different with some sciences but social and humanist ones should surely be accessible.
All the books are stories by themselves. One, however, needs a mention. Prof. Dragan Bulatović, who founded the Centre for Museology and Heritology in Belgrade, translated and published my PhD thesis integrally in 2012 (27 years after it was defended in 1985) in a book format. It was a collegial compliment that I will ever be grateful for: "The entire text, except occasional references to technology, is still valid", - was his only comment. Alas, I never attempted to have it published in English. It would have merited the effort to publish it at the time when the dissertation was defended. Both the title “Towards the Total Museum” and the heretical content were innovative some 40 years ago. It was done after a year of study with George Henry Riviere, a year of studying at ICOM’s documentation centre and a decade of working experience in the museum sector. Just ideally! Young and eager professionals deserve early chances so that they eventually may exercise their maximal contribution. That is how any profession should prosper.
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