Re: Interview w/Sarah Pritchard, Univ. librarian, Northwestern U.

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Ah, but will they want to read 300-page monographs on screen? As 
an acquiring editor for a university press, I read submitted MSS 
electronically now, but i usually only need to read a few 
chapters to make my initial assessment.  It would sorely try my 
patience to read an entire book-length manuscript on screen. And 
we still find that many of the academic reviewers whose opinions 
we solicit want a hard copy to read, not just a PDF. Old habits 
may die, but they will die hard--and there will probably remain 
some diehards who never make the shift!

Sandy Thatcher


At 11:42 PM -0400 6/10/10, Hutchinson, Alvin wrote:

>The technology should come down in price as quickly as it has 
>for other technologies.
>
>Pretty soon these things become commodities and you start 
>finding old, dusty electronic devices in the back of your desk 
>drawer or your glove compartment.
>
>44 year olds who love romance novels is a distinct market, but a 
>much more fast-growing and robust market is those who are 
>under 25 and who have read more text via electronic display 
>than on paper.
>
>And if we're talking about university presses, I'd say the 
>latter are more likely users.
>
>So I'd say Joe is right.
>
>Just my 2 cents.
>
>Alvin Hutchinson
>Smithsonian Institution Libraries
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Quincy Dalton McCrary <qmccrary@gmail.com>
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Re: Interview w/Sarah Pritchard, Univ. librarian, Northwestern U.
>Date: Mon,  7 Jun 2010 19:04:16 EDT
>
>You know they said the same thing when microfiche was 
>invented...give me a 2 dollar kindle and maybe...
>
>But a 400.00 iPAD is just not going to sway the 44 yo mother who 
>loves her romance novels.
>
>Lets see the technology come down in price and then maybe, maybe 
>we will see a rise in digital formats.
>
>Till then open publishing is going to be unfundable over the 
>long term, imho.
>
>Quincy