Subject: Re: Library Link discussion (fwd)
Guedon Jean-Claude (guedon@ERE.UMontreal.CA)
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 20:39:23 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 20:39:23 -0500 (EST) From: Guedon Jean-Claude <guedon@ERE.UMontreal.CA> Subject: Re: Library Link discussion (fwd) To: arl-ejournal@arl.org In-Reply-To: <v02110103b2d096897a6f@[203.37.43.24]> Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9901252059.N455-0100000@esi25.ESI.UMontreal.CA>
On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Tony Barry <tonyb@dynamite.com.au> wrote:
>
> On 23/1/99, Jean-Claude Guedon <guedon@ere.umontreal.ca> wrote:
> >
> > The problem, IMHO, stems from our mistaken view of the library as
> > a mere service to "patrons". On a campus, librarians and scholars
> > form the two ends of a continuous chain.
>
> The chain from author to reader runs through the publisher, serial agent
> and library. The organisation exist in the form they do because of the
> inability of print technology to bridge directly between author and
> reader. The network can't do it either but different forms of
> organisation are evolving such as preprint/reprint servers and direct
> supply from author and publisher to end user via the network.
>
> The print serial literature is in most fields is likely to be in
> terminal decline while library budgets remain static and serials costs
> continue to inflate. It is completely dysfunctional that some
> commercial publishers should continue to make substantial profits in
> this situation by trying to force the continuance of the print journal
> and block access to electronic alternatives by their pricing policies.
I fully agree with Tony's assessment. The networks cannot telescope the
chain into a mere scholar-librarian complicity, but it can bring them a
lot closer together. And if university presses, decent scientific
association publishers or new outfits à la SPARC emerge, then we can
reconstruct the chain in a much more interesting manner than is the case
now with the Elseviers of the world...
Best to all,
Jean-Claude
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Jean-Claude Guedon Tel. 514-343-6208
Departement de litterature comparee Fax. 514-343-2211
Universite de Montreal
CP 6128, Succursale "Centre-ville" Surfaces
Montreal, Qc H3C 3J7
Canada http://www.pum.umontreal.ca/revues/surfaces/
See you at INET'99, San Jose, June 22-25, 1999
http://www.isoc.org/inet99
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