Arab Scholars’ Perceptions on The Quality, Reliability, and Adequacy of Arabic Digital Content

Despite the availability of millions of information resources on the internet, the Arabic digital content represents a relatively small percentage compared with the information available in other languages. The size of Arabic content, the lack of an adequate number of Arabic databases that organize this content and make it available to the Arab reader, and the lack of novelty and originality are the main issues that feature the Arabic content on the internet. The aim of the current study is to clarify the Arab scholars’ perception regarding the quality, reliability, and suitability of Arabic digital content that is available on the internet. A quantitative approach was adopted in this study in order to answer the research questions. A questionnaire was distributed online among a sample of Arab scholars to determine the quality and reliability of the Arabic digital content. Moreover, the questionnaire tried to identify the extent to which the current Arabic digital content meets the growing information needs, to identify the Arab scholars’ uses of Arabic content, and to discover the criteria that determine the digital content suitability. The findings of this study revealed that Arab scholars believe that Arabic digital content is weak and there is a lack of originality. In addition, the results indicated that Arabic digital content on the internet does not satisfy the scholars' needs which enforce them to use English information resources to compensates for the lack of Arabic resources. The study recommended the necessity of establishing mechanisms to support Arabic digital content and increase the academic institutions' role in enhancing Arabic digital content by encouraging and supporting scholarly research in the Arabic language.

Software Must be Recognised as an Important Output of Scholarly Research

Software now lies at the heart of scholarly research. Here we argue that as well as being important from a methodological perspective, software should, in many instances, be recognised as an output of research, equivalent to an academic paper. The article discusses the different roles that software may play in research and highlights the relationship between software and research sustainability and reproducibility. It describes the challenges associated with the processes of citing and reviewing software, which differ from those used for papers. We conclude that whilst software outputs do not necessarily fit comfortably within the current publication model, there is a great deal of positive work underway that is likely to make an impact in addressing this.

Recorder Use in Sacred Music during the Spanish Siglo de Oro: Archival Evidence, Historical Practices, and Applications in Performance - Audio_Files

This article presents findings and conclusions from a recently completed Ph.D. project which researched the use of recorders in performing sacred music in Spanish cathedrals and churches during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This study also examined interactions of the historical findings with artistic questions arising in twenty-first-century performance of sacred music repertoire. Paradoxically, while numerous sets of recorders were purchased by ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth century, most contemporary compositions did not specifically call for their use. As well, surviving sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century documentation is highly fragmentary regarding the participatory role of recorders in sacred repertoire of this period. Scholarly research and writing had not addressed this issue, and many questions persisted regarding any role of recorders in this repertoire. Sacred music of this era offers the modern musician an extensive and rich potential repertoire of supreme quality and beauty. Therefore, in seeking an historically informed basis for performance, this project asked if recorders were used in such works in Spanish ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and, if so, how.

Recorder Use in Sacred Music during the Spanish Siglo de Oro: Archival Evidence, Historical Practices, and Applications in Performance - Audio_Files

This article presents findings and conclusions from a recently completed Ph.D. project which researched the use of recorders in performing sacred music in Spanish cathedrals and churches during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. This study also examined interactions of the historical findings with artistic questions arising in twenty-first-century performance of sacred music repertoire. Paradoxically, while numerous sets of recorders were purchased by ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth century, most contemporary compositions did not specifically call for their use. As well, surviving sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century documentation is highly fragmentary regarding the participatory role of recorders in sacred repertoire of this period. Scholarly research and writing had not addressed this issue, and many questions persisted regarding any role of recorders in this repertoire. Sacred music of this era offers the modern musician an extensive and rich potential repertoire of supreme quality and beauty. Therefore, in seeking an historically informed basis for performance, this project asked if recorders were used in such works in Spanish ecclesiastic institutions during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and, if so, how.

Civil War Regiments

The regiment was the essential “building block” of Civil War armies. Assigned by states, most volunteer regiments were organized based on soldiers’ home residence and reflective of those local communities. Each branch of the army—infantry, artillery, and cavalry—formed into regiments with varying numbers of companies and overall strength. There were regular army regiments and units specially designated for African American troops. As the war dragged on, regimental strengths diminished dramatically. The Confederate Army tried to refill older units with conscripts and new recruits, while the Union created new regiments to replace depleted ones and later consolidated smaller ones. Neither side was entirely successful in restoring regiments to full authorized strength. Nonetheless, the regiment was more than a mode of organization—it was the prime source of identity and pride for volunteers and later veterans. While armies, divisions, and brigades were crucial to winning battles, and companies forged tight bonds of loyalty, it was the regiment to which most soldiers claimed a personal allegiance. Famed regiments like the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment, and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment cited their battle honors and high casualty numbers as proof of their fighting prowess. After the war ended, veterans produced hundreds of regimental histories, recounting their battle service and seeking to claim a place in history. Although many historians dismiss these accounts as worthless for serious scholarly research, regimental histories offer rich firsthand accounts of the conflict. They also offer a vehicle for narrating the war in a form well familiar to the soldiers who experienced it.

ՀՀ ԳԱԱ Արվեստի ինստիտուտի ներդրումը ակադեմիական սպենդիարյանագիտության կայացման ու զարգացման գործում

The contribution of NAS RA Institute of Arts to the formation and development of academic Spendiaryan Studies is outstanding. It includes publication and research of the creative legacy of the prominent representative of Armenian classical music, the founder of Armenian symphonic music, the composer, conductor and musical-and-public figure Alexander Spendiaryan (1871-1928). In the field of Spendiaryan Studies, NAS RA Institute of Arts carried out its works in the following directions: academic publication of complete “Collected Works of Alexander Spendiaryan” in 11 volumes (1951-1988); scholarly research: Knarik Grigoryan’s “Alexander Spendiarov. Life and Ouevre” (1952), Georgi Tigranov’s “Alexander Spendiarov. Based on Letters and Recollections” (in Rus., 1953), collected scholarly papers “Alexander Spendiarov. Articles and Researches” (in Rus., compiled by Gevorg Geodakian, 1973), and many other scholarly papers; publication of the composer’s literary legacy: “Collection of Letters” (compiled by Knarik Grigoryan, 1962); compilation and publication of the chronicle of the composer’s life and oeuvre (compiled by Maria Spendiarova, 1975); organization of anniversary academic conferences (1951, 1971, 2021); compilation and publication of the collection “Contemporaries about Al. Spendiaryan” (compiled by Alexander Tadevosyan, 1960), etc.