Stalking the Wild E-print: A Scout's Impressions of Publicatia Incognita

Abstract

An address to the National Communications Association about my experience with various forms of electronic scholarly prublishing. Four "discoveries" are discussed: (1) Make sure you set aside have enough time and personnel to adequately maintain whatever sites you decide to put up. Make sure you take this into account when deciding what extra features to add to your site; (2)Be prepared for the possibility of there being orders of magnitude more use of your site than you expected. It is not only your members, but many times as many students, as well people from outside the discipline, and their students, who may be interested in what you have to offer; (3) You must make a systematic and sustained effort to convince your colleagues to "buy in" to electronic publication; and (4) Don't slavishly replicate the formats with which you are already familiar in a new medium that has infinitely greater possibilities.