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

>>> Its easy to publish on the Web - but hard to keep a continuity to the
>>> literature.
>>>
>>> Shelly Warwick
>>> <swarwick[_at_]way.com>
>
> A book sits on a shelf. It is physically there. It uses the same access
> technology (fingers, eyes, and literacy) across many human generations.
> A web or online stored publication is there only as long as the server
> is on line. Readers know it is there only for a long as it is available
> to search. I agree with one of the earlier comments in this thread --
> how do create continuity? Do we agree to spend tax dollars to build a
> central repository, with, as was suggested, the library of congress?
> What happens to the notion of periodical archives? I know that
> newspapers don't archive copy of their web editions each day -- they
> might save ascii versions of the text files in a database but that's
> another thing from preserving the work as a whole.
>
> While I'm typing here, I also want to note that while print production
> is certainly not an inexpensive process, electronic publishing has its
> own set of expenses. And the cost of labor often goes up.
>
> -- Teresa Martin
> <tmartin[_at_]projectcool.com>
>
> (Formerly with an unmentioned major newspaper entity and various system
> vendors; currently president of www.projectcool.com)

But most of what is published on paper is also ephemeral. Libraries, serving as archivists, have been independent of publishers at least since the press moved book publishing out of the monastic scriptoria. Some of the libraries are beginning to take seriously their roles as electronic archivists as well, but I'm not sure that archiving is, or should be, any direct concern of the publisher as publisher.

The problems of providing stable, verifiable, and trackable versions and of archiving are both needed for a mature electronic publishing, but I don't think one solution or group will achieve both.

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

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