Re: Economics of dead tree (was: Re: A Radical Thesis)

> Another issue in electronic publishing is bibliographic control. How
> long will any URL be good for? What about scholarly access? What
> about indexing? How to know which version or update is cited? Perhaps
> the Library of Congress will have to provide for electronic deposit of
> materials and become the site of record. Also, what happens when
> software changes radically? What happens when over generations of
> upgrades browers are no longer totally downwardly compatible and older
> documents can't be read? Even if some provision was made for updating
> of code, would it still be the original work? Or would the change in
> code change the expression? Will future scholars first need to get
> copies of outdated browsers to access works?
>
> Its easy to publish on the Web - but hard to keep a continuity to the
> literature.
>
> Shelly Warwick
> <swarwick[_at_]way.com>

Proper use of SGML can handle all of these problems. Paper publishing has largely moved there, and electronic publishing will have to as well. What you are really suggesting is that as more people depend on us and our products, we are going to have to act more professionally.

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Buford C. Terrell                       1303 San Jacinto Street
Professor of Law                              Houston, TX 77002
South Texas College of Law                voice   (713)646-1857
terrell[_at_]stcl.edu                            fax   (713)646-1766

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