------------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator's Note: Relevant prior threads in this Forum: What About the Author Self-Archiving of Books? http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0450.html Journal Papers vs. Books: The Direct/Indirect Income Trade-off http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0317.html University Library Publishing http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0930.html -------------------------------------------------------------------
IS THE BOOK DEAD? http://www.humanities.org.au/NSCF/bookfuture/futureofbook.htm OUTCOMES: Death of the Book? Challenges & Opportunities for Scholarly Publishing 7-8 March 2003 Over one hundred of Australia's leading humanities academics, scholarly publishers, librarians and booksellers met at the National Maritime Museum, March 7 & 8, to debate whether there was a crisis in academic publishing, particularly in Australia. In the end, the general conclusion, was the book is not dead although it may well be dormant in terms of global distribution of Australian content. The book will rise again through the increasingly electronic creation of knowledge and will be produced, accessed and distributed in new ways that require synergies between authors, publishers, librarians and printers. Professor Malcolm Gillies, the Chair of the National Scholarly Communications Forum indicated that new alliances need to be forged in the digital environment to ensure the effective distribution and branding of Australian research in a publishing arena, increasingly dominated by multi-national commercial publishers. Passions were high at times as different viewpoints were vigorously argued - one publisher likening it to the conflict of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Issues such as copyright, quality assurance, digital rights, and scholarly advocacy will all need to be addressed to ensure the effectiveness of Australia's "long distance thinkers" who contribute valuable insights to the frameworks of a just and reasoning Australian society. Powerpoints from the seminar are available from the Academy of Humanities website: http://www.humanities.org.au/NSCF/bookfuture/futureofbook.htm For more information contact Colin Steele: 02 6125 8983 or Justine Molony: 02 6125 9860 -------------------------------------------------------------- Colin Steele Director Scholarly Information Strategies Division of Information W.K. Hancock Building (043) The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Tel +61 (0)2 612 58983 Fax +61 (0)2 612 55526 Email: colin.ste...@anu.edu.au Library Web: http://anulib.anu.edu.au/