Re: Quantification of "values"

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

For what it's worth, there is an interesting discussion by Raym 
Crow of metrics for judging the "value" of publishing 
partnerships in the humanities and social sciences in 
"Campus-Based Publishing Partnerships: A Guide to Critical 
Issues"  (Washington, DC: Scholarly Publishing and Academic 
Resources Coalition, released January 22, 2009):

http://www.arl.org/sparc/partnering

See especially sections 5.6.3 "The Importance of Demonstrating 
Value" (which responds to Ari Belensky's challenge) and 5.6.4 
"Developing Metrics" where Crow makes this observation: "The 
point is not to monetize every activity and benefit: the goal is 
to describe explicitly how an initiative aligns with the 
priorities of the host institution and to demonstrate its value 
relative to the investment required to support it."

I have this fresh in mind because I have just finished writing a 
review of this guide for Learned Publishing!

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


> > It is not because something is not quantifiable that it does
>>  not exist. Limiting one's vision to the quantifiable must
>>  create a very restricted, not to say impoverished, vision of
>>  human activities indeed. There is a famous passage in Saint
>>  Exupery's Little Prince about this point.
>>
>>  How do you quantify your love for your significant other? By
>>  calculating the energy for each caress, counting the number of
>>  caresses and then calculating the amount of oil needed to
>>  produce this energy at the current price? Good luck in your
>>  relationship...
>>
>>  To put it yet another way, value for civilization does not
>>  limit itself to economic value. If kids somewhere are touched
>>  because they understand a poem better through a piece of
>>  literary criticism, and if that kid's life is then to be
>>  changed in subtle and beautiful ways because of that reading, I
>>  believe that constitutes value for civilization and I believe
>>  no price can be assigned to it. But if that reading prevents
>>  this kid later to turn into a suicide bomber, that piece of
>>  literary criticism could have the value of the Twin Towers.
>>
>>  Number fetishists and market fundamentalists, as we can see all
>>  around us, are destroying a lot of value all around us. Value
>>  quantified in the trillions. How inspiring!
>>
>>  jean-claude Guedon