Fast Forward: Publishing Goes Digital
Now it is 2007. We are all publishers. We all have the power and tools to create copies. This is not some Orwellian fantasy, this is our reality. We can all think of things, write them down, take pictures or record sounds, and transmit that information to a broad range of audiences around the world. We can send an e-mail to a listserv with a readership of hundreds. We can print a thousand copies of something and have it professionally
bound for very little money.
In this market, traditional publishing still happens and copyrights are still exchanged. Each of you will probably publish one or more articles in a peer-reviewed journal this year. Chances are that your work will end up in an online version of the journal, or perhaps will only be published online when the journal publisher eliminates print versions to take advantage of the high speed and low cost afforded by the Internet. Therefore, publishing in this traditional fashion supports a broad-based dissemination of your work.
But, by giving publisher’s the rights to disseminate your work, does this exclude you from exercising your own right to share your work with students and colleagues with the ease and convenience of the digital environment? Can you send the link of your work to a listserv of your colleagues? Can you reproduce a copy of your work to share with your class? Can you post your work on a personal, departmental, or university Web site? What if your library doesn’t own the journal you’ve published in? What if your colleagues’ libraries don’t own the journal you’re published in? If, a few years from now, the journal in which you’ve published goes under, what happens to your work?
6. Cartoon Credit: www.cartoonstock.com