โ Scribed by Donald R. Cahill
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The debate continues over the future of books (and journals) in the electronic age-publishers anguish about electronic publishing and permissions, and copyright departments discuss it endlessly, students seem to enjoy it, librarians alternately love and hate it. Is online information going to replace real books (or journals)? Are they really dead, or will they be replaced by CD-ROM or online databases? The irony of this is that most professionals online will tell you that they access the information and then print it out-back to hard copy for actual reading (Ruff, 1995). This is my experience also. For example, neither I, my colleagues, nor most of my students use the computer screen for the amount of time required to carefully study technical information, and the reliability of electronic systems is too often whimsical. Few contest these particular points, but it is equally undeniable that the special features that come with electronic systems, such as instant computation, retrieval, review, and convenient, high-capacity storage of data, etc., are now fully integrated into almost every aspect of modern life, and for good reasons. However, the debate that Ruff (1997) brings up is multifaceted, and-especially from the publishers' viewpoint-there are complex economic and copyright ramifications yet to be faced and sorted out. Nevertheless, digital communication is here, and publishers faced with Hobson's choice (an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative) are rushing to bring ''one-stop'' online service to their subscribers.
Charles R.
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