Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Information Architect, Samuel Huskey, and to the programming and web designing skills of Confluence Corporation, we have launched a new web site with a new URL: https://classicalstudies.org/. Both the site and the URL reflect the Society’s new name and its effort to be more useful and accessible to both its members and to a wider audience of people interested in classical antiquity. The site is easier to navigate and will present more opportunities for featuring and discussing new work in classics. The site will also include all Placement Service operations.
To ensure that the site and our social media outlets are comprehensive and current, President John Marincola is appointing a new Communications Committee. Once this Committee begins operations, I will publish contact information and procedures that members can use to make suggestions to its members. In the interim, please send comments and suggestions to me (blistein@sas.upenn.edu).
Streamlined Access for SCS Members
As before, much of the information on the SCS web site will be available to any visitor. However, the new site will make it easier for members to become Placement Service candidates and subscribers at no charge and to enjoy other benefits exclusive to members because it will permit them to use a single set of credentials for all functions on the SCS web site and for all SCS-related activities on the Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP) web site. Members no longer need to create multiple online accounts for SCS. Accounts already established or to be established at the JHUP web site will be the only credentials you need.
Members with Existing Accounts at JHUP. If you have ever created an account on the JHUP web site, for example, to pay your dues via credit card or to view our directory of members, the username and password associated with that account will now give you access to the SCS web site as well. If you need a reminder of either your username or password on the JHUP web site, click on the relevant link to request it.
Members Needing to Create an Account at JHUP. Follow this link to create an online account. You will need both the e-mail address you gave to Johns Hopkins when you paid your dues and your member number. If you need a reminder of your member number, click here.
If you need further assistance from staff at Johns Hopkins, they can be reached in the following ways:
- Telephone: 800-548-1784 (U.S. and Canada only); 410-516-6987 (other countries)
- FAX: 410-516-3866
- E-mail: mailto:jrnlcirc@press.jhu.edu
If you call JHUP and reach an answering machine, be sure to leave a message that includes a suggested time to call you back. This will enable staff to follow up with you as soon as they can.
Site Navigation
Two menus appear at the top of every page on the site. In the higher of the two, note especially the links for member log-in and for “SCS News”. The former gives members access to the portions of the site that are set aside for them, and the latter (as the APA Blog did before) contains announcements of Society activities and other information for anyone interested in classics. Clicking on SCS News will generate a list of the most recent announcements of all kinds, but the drop-down menu and search box above the first item on the list permit the user to obtain a specific range of entries.
The second menu, in white type on a blue background, gives links to the most commonly used functions on our site. Each of these links contains a drop-down menu leading to a specific subtopic. Clicking on the white text will also take the user to an introductory page where the links in the drop-down menu appear on the right hand side of the screen. The menu on the right appears on many related interior pages as well.
Below the image on the main page only are four links to “landing pages”. On these four pages we have attempted to place links to the information that we think will be most useful for our four overlapping constituencies: members, professional classicists, classics students, and enthusiasts for classics. For that reason some links appear on more than one landing page. Underneath these four links are an additional link for the annual meeting, the most recent letter from the President, and a number of other useful links for the field.
Further down the main page, we have also added a Member Spotlight that will feature information about a new member every few weeks. To begin this new feature we have asked (first) Sara Forsdyke and (in a few weeks) Matt Roller, both of whom rotated off the Board last January as at-large Directors, to write about their service to the Society. Members with suggestions for this new feature should write to me (blistein@sas.upenn.edu) for transmission to the new Communications Committee.
Members Only Page
The Members Only page contains links to the Directory of Members, to TAPA online, and to discounts on various publications and resources including our GreekKeys software. To reach that page, first log in to the SCS web site, and then click on the drop-down menu under “Membership” or click on “Membership” itself. You will then see a link labeled “For Members Only”. Note that this link will not appear unless you are logged in. Finally, if the resource you are seeking is on the Johns Hopkins site rather than our own (the Directory and TAPA are examples), you will need to enter your membership credentials again.
Placement Service
The 2015-2016 Placement Service is now open. Before registering for the service, please read the information below about new features this year.
As President Marincola announced in his most recent letter, SCS members may enroll as candidates or subscribers to the Placement Service at no charge for 2015-2016. The Finance Committee and Board of Directors took this step enthusiastically as part of the Society’s efforts to provide as much assistance as possible to those members who have the least resources. If you register, note that “candidates” have access to the full range of services provided to job-seekers, including the scheduling of interviews at the annual meeting. We offer “subscriber” status to members who are not on the job market themselves but who want to monitor that market, usually because they are advising candidates in some capacity. Nonmembers can again purchase either service for $55.
Candidates and subscribers should note carefully the information above about verifying membership before registering for the Service. If you are not yet a member of the Society or if your dues are not current, the fastest way to gain access to a free subscription is to pay dues online, and then log in to the Placement Service using the credentials you create during the payment.
In part to recover some of the revenue that will be lost by offering candidates and subscriber services to members at no charge, the Society has increased the fees for institutions for the first time in several years. Institutions purchasing Comprehensive Service (which includes facilities for conducting interviews at the annual meeting) will pay $475. The fee for institutions simply placing an advertisement will be $200 until January 9 and $175 thereafter. If you are purchasing an institutional service, note that individual or departmental membership is not required, and that membership brings no reduction in institutional fees.
If you have used the Service in previous years, you know that candidates, subscribers, and comprehensive institutions used to receive an e-mail each night if we had approved any new job listings that day. The e-mail list serve will operate in a slightly different manner this year. A day or two after you register for the Service, you will receive an e-mail confirming your addition to the Placement list serve. While your e-mail subscription will not be active immediately, you will have access to all published jobs by visiting the Placement Service pages once you are logged in and clicking on a link entitled “Job Ads for Placement Service Candidates”.
In addition, once your e-mail subscription is active, you will receive an e-mail immediately after each new listing is approved. These separate individual e-mails will replace the daily summary of jobs posted that we sent in previous years.
To register for the 2015-2016 Service, go to classicalstudies.org and then click on “Placement Service” in the menu with the blue background. Scroll down to find either Services for Candidates and Subscribers or Services for Institutions, and click on the appropriate link.
Over the last two weeks, we published new job advertisements for 2015-2016 on last year’s Placement site. I posted those listings again in SCS News and will continue to make them available there for about a week. We ask that the institutions posting those advertisements now register for the Service and post them in the new online system.
Conclusion
I hope you will enjoy the new site. Please send comments and reports of broken links to me (blistein@sas.upenn.edu).
Adam D. Blistein
Executive Director