Re: Does free lead to paid?

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Heather,

Is the important criterion that the book is read or that the book
is written?  If the former, what are we to do with the many books
that literally never circulate?  You perhaps have figures for
your own institution that you would be willing to share.
Librarians I have spoken to tell me that there is a large
component of their collections of books that never circulate.

Joe Esposito

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 2:37 PM, Heather Morrison <hgmorris@sfu.ca> wrote:

> As Sandy Thatcher has pointed out, there are significant
> differences between academic books and trade books.
>
> The key difference, from my perspective, is the purpose of the
> book. For academic books, the purpose for writing, very similar
> to articles, is to disseminate new knowledge. The difference
> in access between open access and today's typical academic book
> print run of a few hundred copies is huge.
>
> In other words, the important criterion for success of an
> academic book is not whether access is "paid", but whether the
> book is read.
>
> Heather Morrison, MLIS
> PhD Student, SFU School of Communication
> The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
> http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com