Re: Google Print Home Page now offers searching

["Anthony Watkinson" <anthony.watkinson@btopenworld.com>]

I would like to back up this comment by Joe.

One answer to Ross is very straightforward. There is nothing to stop any
academic publishing his or her book directly on to the web. Some have
done.

If however this academic wants a print version (as the great majority seem
to do) and if they want the services and imprimatur of a publisher, they
will go through a publisher.

For many years publishers of monographs (mostly non-profits) have been
trying to find a way of publishing monographs that is feasible i.e.
sustainable and which makes online access part of the offering. Some
models may now at last be emerging. For information see the recently
published Books in the Digital Age by John B. Thompson (available in the
US from July and already available in the UK). This is a brilliant
analysis by a top sociologist.

It seems to me that those who believe that only the intransigence of
publishers is preventing e-access to books might find this book a
corrective.

Anthony

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: Google Print Home Page now offers searching

> Every book publisher I am aware of has plans (carefully thought-out plans)
> to make books available online.
>
> Joe Esposito
>
> On 6/9/05, Ross Atkinson <ra13@cornell.edu> wrote:
>>Monographic publishers (unlike many journal publishers) seem to have no
>>practicable or systematic plans to make their publications
>>electronically accessible. There are e-book vendors,of course, but 
>>their hands are eriously tied by the publishers--who insist upon very 
>>high prices and sometimes very poor access. The more that scholarly 
>>work is written and read online, the more problematic this (admittedly 
>>understandable) intransigence will become, especially in the 
>>humanities.
>>
>>Jim is concerned that texts he needs have been scanned, and yet he is
>>being denied adequate access to them.  The more Google Print grows, the
>>more scholars are going to have the same experiences Jim has described.
>>If it is available, why can't they have it to use? I expect some real 
>>anger on the part of students and scholars will develop.  They will 
>>say, as Jim has, that this seems either daft or goofy.  But who is daft 
>>or goofy? Google, if they're smart (and they are), will say something 
>>implying that they are not the daft and goofy ones--but rather it is 
>>the publishers who are insisting upon such access restrictions.
>>
>>This will place much more pressure upon monographic publishers finally
>>to find some solution to making their publications more accessible in 
>>an online environment.  It will and should become clear to them that, 
>>if they do not find such solutions, scholarly authors will be obliged 
>>to find some other means to publish their work, so that it will be 
>>easily and more openly accessible online.  -- I don't know if Google 
>>has a plan--but if they do, and it is in fact to encourage scholarly 
>>monographic publishers to make some long overdue changes in their 
>>access policies, then it seems to me to be an excellent one; and Jim, 
>>and of course others, by getting testy about the limitations of Google 
>>Print, are essential players in it.
>>
>> Ross Atkinson
>> Associate University Librarian
>>   for Collections
>> Cornell University
>> Ithaca, NY 14853-5301