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

[Laval Hunsucker <amoinsde@yahoo.com>]

> Old habits may die, but they will die hard--and there will 
> probably remain some diehards who never make the shift!

Undoubtedly.  There are even now, in a few places, a few real 
diehards who still prefer, after five and a half centuries, 
manuscripts (even in codex form) to printed texts. Though I'm not 
sure how many others ever take them into account in any way.

- Laval Hunsucker
Breukelen, Nederland


----- Original Message ----
From: Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Sent: Sat, June 12, 2010 12:29:15 AM
Subject: Re: Interview w/Sarah Pritchard, Univ. librarian, Northwestern U.

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