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Hitting the Nail
Hello there,
Dr. Peter [Boyce] does well to identify the archilles heel of the future
for scholary publishing archives, their creation and access - QUALITY
INDEXING.
He said...
"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."
The advice I give to all and sundry in regard to collections of academic
worth and/or value is to index and catalogue as early in the process as
possible. This guarantees and preserves the future intrinsic value based
on one simple concept
- ACCESS. With the best people to provide that guide being the original
author and publisher who are most familiar with the work in question.
Many great repositories here in Australia have (unfortunately) been a
little lost in their efforts in coming to grips with the critical
situation of electronic integration of computer assitance in archive and
publishing matters. Don't get me wrong, amazing work is underway, promoted
by those who have had the light dawn upon them, but the rest mumble around
caught up in the twilight of paper as the medium of preference for
publication, like many others on this planet.
What makes a _good_ electronic journal is the cross-linking to source
materials from which the assertation is drawn or built upon, but how about
the incidental works that are used/absorbed along the way in creation and
delivery of a new knowledge as ancillary references? The computer has
destroyed the trail that is traditionally left by an inquisitive mind.
Think of the human-hours of work that are scotched every time the trash is
emptied on the desktop into the never-never.
But the issue still remains of the 'finishing' of any purposfull
endeavour, which is where this new age of computer assistance is so
valuable, but has it been adopted or developed to where it [process and
method] is standard yet, I think not.
It is like the mystery of the ancient Egyptians, middle American Maya and
Incas who had evolved a most sophisticated form of communications, but
only in recent times has an understanding been wrought from the pictures
and in most cases is speculative at best. Is this how it will be in
another couple of centuries?
What future is there with all the amassed volumes of information/knowledge
if there is no 'key' to unlocking the worth of the content?
The two keys we all know are Index and Catalogue, but what are they to
become in this new information age?
Best Regards
Bede G. Ireland
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