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Moderator's Note: Relevant prior threads in this Forum:
What About the Author Self-Archiving of Books?
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0450.html
Journal Papers vs. Books: The Direct/Indirect Income Trade-off
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0317.html
University Library Publishing
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/0930.html
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IS THE BOOK DEAD?
http://www.humanities.org.au/NSCF/bookfuture/futureofbook.htm
OUTCOMES: Death of the Book? Challenges & Opportunities for Scholarly
Publishing 7-8 March 2003
Over one hundred of Australia's leading humanities academics, scholarly
publishers, librarians and booksellers met at the National Maritime Museum,
March 7 & 8, to debate whether there was a crisis in academic publishing,
particularly in Australia.
In the end, the general conclusion, was the book is not dead although it may
well be dormant in terms of global distribution of Australian content. The
book will rise again through the increasingly electronic creation of
knowledge and will be produced, accessed and distributed in new ways that
require synergies between authors, publishers, librarians and printers.
Professor Malcolm Gillies, the Chair of the National Scholarly
Communications Forum indicated that new alliances need to be forged in the
digital environment to ensure the effective distribution and branding of
Australian research in a publishing arena, increasingly dominated by
multi-national commercial publishers. Passions were high at times as
different viewpoints were vigorously argued - one publisher likening it to
the conflict of the Reformation in the sixteenth century.
Issues such as copyright, quality assurance, digital rights, and scholarly
advocacy will all need to be addressed to ensure the effectiveness of
Australia's "long distance thinkers" who contribute valuable insights to the
frameworks of a just and reasoning Australian society.
Powerpoints from the seminar are available from the Academy of Humanities
website:
http://www.humanities.org.au/NSCF/bookfuture/futureofbook.htm
For more information contact Colin Steele: 02 6125 8983
or
Justine Molony: 02 6125 9860
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Colin Steele
Director Scholarly Information Strategies
Division of Information
W.K. Hancock Building (043)
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia
Tel +61 (0)2 612 58983
Fax +61 (0)2 612 55526
Email: colin.steele_at_anu.edu.au
Library Web:
http://anulib.anu.edu.au/
Received on Mon Mar 31 2003 - 02:14:51 BST