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Re: Online and Out of Print
As Pete Goldie points out, the "out-of-print" issue is a misnomer for a good electronic scholarly work. There are several reasons. One, a good electronic archive will have to be managed so that the on-line products can be migrated to new technologies and the presentation upgraded to take advantage of advances in browser technology, etc. Second, one of the main constituents of an on-line journal or scholarly work is the links it contain -- both to the refernced papers, but also to the future papers which cite the article. This requires on-going management of the electronic archive. Third, an outgrowth of #2, an electronic journal does not exist by itself. Individual scholarly works are all part of the vast digital library called the Internet. Some are better connected and interlinked than others. We at the American Astronomical Society feel that it is our responsibility to maintain the accessability of our scholarly material indefinitely. This is particularly true as we include items which are only available electronically, such as movies of computer simulations, etc. where the electronic material is a vital part of the information being transmitted. As Pete Goldie says, maintenance of such an archive costs something. Our solution is to start a fund for future archive maintenance which will alllow us to pay for the archive operation and management. We feel that technological advances will result in reducing the costs so we will be able to store and amintain an ever growing archive with the funds we are setting aside now. But there is another, and more fundamental reason why "out of print" electronic material can not be copied and distributed by a number of independent sources. Any _good_ electronic journal -- one which is composed of much more than simple page images or PDF formatting -- has a wealth of materials, scripts, links and name servers in addition to the text. A _good_ journal is a complex system, and requires all the underlying structure in order to be a functional journal. It takes a large investment in infrastructure and some degree of expertise to provide access to such an electronic journal. While a market may develop to maintain access to electronic materials which were poorly designed and formatted in the first place, it will not be a simple job for anyone but the original publisher to archive a _good_ electronic journal. I hope reputable publishers will work with the library community to address the archive problem. --Peter-- ____________________________________________________________________ Dr. Peter B. Boyce Senior Associate and past Executive Officer pboyce@aas.org American Astronomical Society Fax: 202-234-2560 http://www.aas.org/~pboyce Ph: 202-328-2010 ____________________________________________________________________
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