Victoria,
I really HATE it when people only publish on CD-ROM. I do not
consider it archival. If the item is important enough to be added to
my collection, it is important enough NOT to only be available on
CD-ROM. I did major lobbying to get the latest proceedings of the
California Channel Islands Symposium done in print. It took several
years after the CD-ROM came out, but they finally did it. A CD-ROM
may be OK to distribute to conference participants, but not for the
library copy.
The reason I don't consider CD-ROM archival is not so much the
longevity of the CD-ROM, but the longevity of the players needed to
view it. CD-ROM is already gradually being replace by DVD. It will
be a while, but in a decade or so you may be hard pressed to find the
electronic hardware needed to view the CD-ROM. Can you image if all
the books and journals in your library became unreadable 10 years
after you purchased them?
If they are going to go digital, they should put it up FOR FREE on the web.
Even if it is free on the web, if they produce a print copy, I would
buy it even though their past publications have been very expensive.
Joe
>Hello all and Happy New Year.
>
>Don Potts, a faculty member and coral reef researcher here at UC
>Santa Cruz, is on the organising committee of the 10th Intl. Coral
>Reef Symposium. The organizing committee is considering publishing
>the proceedings on CD ROM only, and Dr. Potts is interested
>in librarians' reactions to this. While I can respond from the
>perspective of a unversity library in the US, the organizing
>committee would benefit from responses from librarians in all types
>of libraries and in as many countries as possible.
>
>Below is Dr. Potts' email to me-with some specific questions and
>concerns. Thanks in advance for your time. I will make sure Dr.
>Potts gets all the responses.
>
>Victoria Welborn, UCSC Science Library
>
>(Note to Victoria Welborn from Dr. Don Potts:)
>
>I'm on the organising committee of the 10th Intl. Coral Reef
>Symposium. Traditionally, the proceedings have always been published
>in 2-6 volumes about 1-2 years later (with an emphasis on strict
>peer review and editing after the conference). The question has come
>up about moving to CD-ROM publication, and we've been asked to find
>out how our libraries feel about:
>> * CD-ROMs as the only written record of meetings etc.?
>>
>> * any problems with longterm storage, access, cataloging,
>> archiving etc.?
>>
>> * any policies and practices that might be developing in libraries
>> about handling of electronic media?
>>
>> * any advice librarians might give to people publishing
>> electronically?
>>
>These proceedings have become one of the major means of
>communication in the coral reef field, and we want to maintain that.
>At the same time (and partly because of it) we want to accelerate
>the publicatio! n time, and reduce the costs to organizers and
>individuals.
>>
>> We know that some organizations publish mainly in CD-ROMs, but
>>with a limited printed library edition as well (e.g. many remote
>>sensing meetings do this). Do librarians recommend such a practice?
>>
>> Anyway I'd appreciate any thoughts you or your colleagues may have
>>about these questions
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>> Don
>
>
>
>
>
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