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

[Quincy Dalton McCrary <qmccrary@gmail.com>]

What I meant by my romance novel comment was more along the lines 
of...e-readers are still expensive compared to a pulp paperback. 
I did not mean to imply that romance-genre readers are 
technophobes...just that romance novels (and other genres like 
them) are traditionally cheap.

Just a comment about technology that another poster correctly 
notes may become cheap sooner rather than later. But, lets think 
on that for a moment. The eco-cost of a paperback is probably 
less than that of a cheap e-reader. Do we really want disposable 
e-readers cluttering up our landfills (think mercury and 
lead...)? Why are so many so keen to move away from the printed 
book, especially since we finally got the damn thing to be pretty 
sustainable?

Each semester I put a large portion the readings for my classes 
as PDFs online (anthropology students with lots of reading). Even 
though I allow them to bring in laptops to class, at least 3/4s 
of my students still print out and bring in the articles. If I 
were to insist the students purchase an "Annual Editions" 
publication, which they then sold at the end of the semester, 
which format would have a greater waste impact? I have not read 
any study addressing this issue, can anyone suggest any? Do you 
think its possible that my using digital readings is actually 
increasing the paper wasted by my students? Is this reflective of 
the greater academy?

If indeed the Kindle was going to revolutionize e-reading (or 
whatever the next reader is), why isnt it developed toward the 
university market (as someone noted earlier, the ready market due 
to the level of digital text being read by the average student 
today)?  As far as I can tell, both the Kindle and the Ipad are 
just not ready for 1500 page textbooks on chemistry...why is 
that? Because its a specialized market really aimed at 
technophiles who want the newest toy.

As we all know, the publishing cost of academic journals is out 
of hand. At UCSF we were told we have to incur a 400 % increase 
in the subscription cost of a particular journal this last month. 
If anything, we have seen the cost of digital journal 
subscriptions increase tremendously as the publishers fight off 
the OA movement (obviously). I still dont see the journal 
publication/subscription problem as one of the access point, but 
rather a strangle hold of the publishers as many in the field of 
information science have already revealed.

I believe that the OA movement is more about opening up the 
ability to share knowledge than it is about selling 
e-readers...or moving away from the printed book. However, as 
long as the corporate publishers own access to the major 
journals, OA and OP will remain the red-headed step child of the 
academic publishing world...

IMHO


On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 3:39 PM, Pikas, Christina K. 
Christina.Pikas@jhuapl.edu> wrote:

> With respect to what readers of romance novels want, are you all
> speculating or basing this on data?  In my local public library,
> they have purchased many Harlequin series in ADE format and the
> books are almost always checked out with holds.  Furthermore,
> when the economy goes south, romance novel readership goes up.
> Granted this is an extremely small sample size - but one of the
> biggest library systems in the country. Also, ADE, so not usable
> on the iPad, AFAIK.
>
> But this is all off the topic of the main point. I'm just saying
> that in fact, this is a poor example because readers of romance
> novels might be earlier adopters of the technology than other
> recreational readers.
>
> Christina
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Hutchinson, Alvin
> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 11:42 PM
> To: 'liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu'
> Subject: Re: Interview w/Sarah Pritchard, Univ. librarian, Northwestern U.
>
>  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