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Re: Perpetual Access
Peter Boyce, Pete Goldie and others have expressed their opinions recently on the distinction between "true" electronic journals and the facsimile representation of pages, such as that provided by the Adobe Acrobat PDF format. There seems to be an assumption in these remarks that the "facsimile representations" (such as PDF) are at best inferior and at worst a nefarious mis-representation by the vendor inhibiting true e-journal progress. I do not agree. This perspective comes from such characterizations as "true electronic journals" (versus the false ones, I assume) and that other representations are "SIMPLY electronic delivery of page images" (my emphasis). Mr. Goldie warns of "short-term expeditious e-pub solutions." I agree with the distinctions that have been made between these different type of representations, but I think PDF type resources provide -- and will continue to provide -- a very useful base of communication and format. I do not think that to be considered a "true" e-journal a publication must have "links to referenced and citations and other data," integration of multimedia and dynamic interaction with the reader. The PDF type of representation is a bridging kind of strategy between the very strong advantages of the print world and format with the very strong advantages of the electronic world and format. The two representations are not exclusive and to call one a "true" e-journal and the other "short-term expeditious e-pub solutions offered by publishers" is short-sighted and electronically provincial, in my opinion. Whether or not PDF representation moves from a bridging strategy to a *transitional* one is a more interesting discussion. I tend to think it will not because I think there will always be useful print publications where the electronic format will be secondary (or even unavailable). For the applications and many others (such as the archival representation of older print resources) I think there will always be a useful role and value for a PDF type of representation. An even more interesting notion is whether or not we will ever reach the point where the electronic format is so central and ubiquitous that we find it necessary to develop PDF in reverse -- one that will produce a "true" print publication from an electronic one where it is required for some reason. Such a format would be more than just a simple printing of the electronic from a browser but would supplement and include print type formatting and page breaks as well as the printing of HTML links for later reference and use online, etc. Final thought: the issue reminds of the wails and warnings that Nicholas Negroponte used to express (and, I assume still does) about the destructive rise of the fax machine and its pernicious assault on the future progress of the digitization of all things. The value and the goal is not some strict adherence to digital processes; the value and goal is effective and efficient communication between people and organizations. Fax machines do this remarkably well in many situations; the PDF format does this remarkably well in many situations. That "true" digitization has advantages over a fax image (or a PDF image) may be true. But its value must be considered in its effectiveness and its application; its value is NOT its inate electronicness... (While I may disagree with them, my thanks to Mr. Boyce and Mr. Goldie for their comments. These are interesting issues to think about and discuss.) ------------- David Carlson Director of Libraries Bridgewater State College Bridgewater, MA 02325 E: dcarlson@bridgew.edu V: 508/697-1256 Fax: 508/697-1349
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