Electronic publishing

Julian Humphries jmh3 at CORNELL.EDU
Wed Mar 13 17:32:17 CST 1996


> Date:          Wed, 13 Mar 1996 16:57:03 -0500
> Reply-to:      Andrey Sharkov <asharkov at MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>
> From:          Andrey Sharkov <asharkov at MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU>


> On Mon, 11 Mar 1996 Leonard Krishtalka  wrote:
>
> >It is worth remembering however that the information recorded by all of the
> >"extinct" technologies -- 78 rpm records, 8-track table, wax cylinder -- are
> >being recovered and archived on CDs,
>
> and  on Tue, 12 Mar 1996  George Schatz wrote:
> >I think that we can be assured  (by whom? - A.S.) that the industry will
> maintain backwards
> >compatibility for CD technology.
>
> don't know.  We know, however, that there is no problem reading a book
> published 100 (and many more) years ago. I don't think anybody will argue
> with that.

I will. Literally hundreds if not thousands of species have been and
are continuing to be described in paper journals and other
publications that have been or will be "lost" to science.  Journals
that exist for a few years, have limited dissemination and then
disappear are every bit as transitory as a WWW site that goes away or
a "old" CD that requires a special reader.  I argue there is no more
than a semantic distinction between the two cases, paper books
sitting in box in New Dehli (or LA or London, whatever) have
effectively disappeared.

You are used to the supposed permanance of books and journals
because libraries as well as individual scientists archive them.
That all comes about because we build the infrastructure to assure
their continued availability. Its not the wood fiber that matters,
its the scientific society, library and community support that assure
continued access.  There is little doubt that library willingness to
continue subscriptions to little used (paper) journals is on the
wane, no predictive power is needed there.



Julian Humphries
Ecology and Systematics, The MUSE Project
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853
Phone: 607-257-8143    Fax: 607-257-8109
__________________________________________
A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office
 that a Republican wants.
 Alben W. Barkley (1877-1956),  U.S Vice President (1949-1953)




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