New competitors for the publishers: The cobbler and his last
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045593 |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Pages | 431-435 |
| Author | Bas Savenije |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
New competitors for the
publishers: the cobbler
and his last
Bas Savenije
Director/Head Librarian, Utrecht University Library, PO Box 16007, 3500 DA Utrecht,
The Netherlands
E-mail: b.savenije@ubu.ruu.nl
1. Introduction
There is an anecdote about a man who, when a lost stranger asked him the way, answered:
'Well,
if I were
you I would not start from here.'
A similar reply is possible in answer to the question of in what direction information technology is heading.
When discussing future developments we must realise that we are not in some Archimedean point in time
from which we can view these developments
objectively.
The
point we are presently at has partly been deter-
mined by these very developments. In view of certain current developments our position could even turn out
to be a rather unfavourable one. Our realising the relativity of this circumstance would of course not be of any
remedy, but it may help us in further attempts to shape our future. In case this sounds somewhat cryptic to
you,
I can assure you that I will return to this issue at the end of this editorial.
In the academic world it is suggested from time to
time that universities should start issuing publica-
tions written by their own
staff.
In response to this
suggestion, publishers usually advise the universi-
ties not to embark upon a trade with which they are
unfamiliar. In doing so they usually point to a number
of less successful efforts in setting up a university
press or keeping it operational, concluding their
admonitions with the advice: 'cobbler, stick to your
last'. In this matter three questions appear to be
rel-
evant:
• what is the academic 'last'?
• what of the publishers' 'last'?
• do these 'lasts' differ in any respect?
The universities' core business is education and
research.
Scholars publish the findings of their own
scientific research and they also take frequent notice
of research conducted by colleagues who are
engaged in the same discipline in and outside the
university. At first glance one cannot think of a good
reason why they should not get involved in publish-
ing their
own
material. Even less
so,
if one considers
that universities have to pay for these publications
more than once because they also
fund:
• the salary of university staff members who write
all these articles and papers;
• the salary of the reviewer
who,
at the request of
the publisher, judges whether the articles are
suitable for publication;
• the publication's purchase price.
But what is so special about the publishers' core
business that it could not be taken over as an activi-
ty by other parties?
In the following treatise I would like to demonstrate
that:
(1) the raison
d'être
of traditional publishers'
prod-
ucts is becoming more and more questionable
In view of current developments in the field of
Information technology. I shall illustrate this by
analysing the case of the scientific journal;
(2) the question of whether the publishing
busi-
ness needs to remain the exclusive domain of
traditional publishers is no longer indisputable.
The information chain
The publisher's role is often described as a link
in
the
so-called information
chain.
At the moment there are
many problems with this. For readers not familiar
with the jargon, the accepted definition of the infor-
mation chain is as follows:
'An infrastructure consisting of a chain of groups
which each fulfil one or more functions in the
process of information supply by using the avail-
able means' (Heine
et
al.
1991).
This chain is usually represented graphically. The
traditional representation used to be comparatively
GUEST
EDITORIAL
The Electronic Library, Vol. 15, No. 6, December 1997 431
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