Useful life of CDROM

[Hugh Wilson]

I think many professional societies, esp. those now producing
hardcopy journals, are involved as critical players in various
alliances and 'deals' with various traditional and electronic
publishers that will eventually result in movement toward digital
publication.  While I have not seen this as an element of the various
plans now in place or under development, it seems to me that those
professional groups with a stable web position could require, as a
condition for their involvement in the e-pub enterprise as content
producers, an archive that is controlled and maintained through time
by the *society*.  Eventual mods to codes of nomenclature required
for digital publication might be facilitated if those involved could
deal with 'community' archives, as opposed to those associated with
organizations that have little to do with biological systematics.

No doubt that hardcopy volumes now sitting on library shelves
represent a stable archive that cannot be replicated by digital
publication and that loss of this reference presents problems to
systematics that might be unique relative to other scientific
disciplines moving into e-pub.

> Date:          Sat, 17 Jul 1999 09:26:20 -0400
> Reply-to:      Richard Zander <rzander at SCIENCEBUFF.ORG>
> From:          Richard Zander <rzander at SCIENCEBUFF.ORG>
> Subject:       Re: Useful life of CDROM
> To:            TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG

> Well, that's a good point to think about. Of course there are
> operating e-journals that deal with systematics (mostly ecology,
> physiology and molecular stuff) already in place, run by responsible
> institutions, see e.g. the recent HighWire posting, though any new
> botanical names are not now valid if published in them. Perhaps an
> electronic version of a standard botanical journal in which names
> are now often published (Taxon, specialty journals) might have each
> an e-addendum for new names.
>
> My point is that I'd like to see a standard library (not a
> for-profit company that may go bust in a few years) archive and make
> available for free over the very long-term a scientific e-journal
> wholely or in part dedicated to new names and published in a format
> dubbed "standard" by librarians who are concerned with long-term
> archiving and access.
>
> It may be that HighWire http://highwire.stanford.edu/ intends to
> perform this public library function over the very long term, and
> its formats seem flexible and standard. To me. But I'm not a
> librarian.
>
> Richard
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Doug Yanega <dyanega at POP.UCR.EDU>
> To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
> Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 2:07 PM
> Subject: Re: Useful life of CDROM
>
>
> > Ricahrd Zander wrote:
> >
> > >I think that an operating e-journal and an operating free e-library  must
> be
> > >in place before the botanical Code is changed.
> >
> > ??? If the Code does not already indicate such publications are valid, how
> > would one have an operating e-journal? Who would submit papers they know
> > are not valid? Is it just my imagination or have you put the cart before
> > the horse here?
> >
> > Peace,
> >
> >
> > Doug Yanega       Dept. of Entomology           Entomology Research Museum
> > Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
> > phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
> >                 http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
> >   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
> >         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>
>
>
> Richard H. Zander, Curator of Botany
> Buffalo Museum of Science
> 1020 Humboldt Pkwy
> Buffalo, NY 14211 USA
> email: rzander
> @sciencebuff.org
> voice: 716-895-5200 x 351

Hugh D. Wilson
Texas A&M University - Biology
h-wilson at tamu.edu (409-845-3354)
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilson/homepage.html