Victoria - Joe just said very succinctly what I've meant to write down all
morning. I DESPISE CD-ROMs. I agree with everything he said and would like
to add that use of CD-ROM's is never as simple as using a book. Every time
I hand a CD-ROM to a patron, I'm invariably called out to find out what is
wrong with the computer, which is the CD-ROM drive, why the CD-ROM won't
seem to load, how to move around within it, why the page they want won't
print, etc., etc. No one needs that kind of help with a book.
Our Coral Reef Symposium proceedings are heavily used and always are
considered worth their cost in paper. I regularly loan them through the
interlibrary loan system, but often only 1 volume at a time. If another
library wants to borrow the CD-ROM version, I'm denying my own library
patrons the use of the remaining volumes because they're all on that one
CD-ROM. If the proceedings went up free on the web, I, too, would still
cheerfully buy a printed copy. I embrace the digital world in a million
ways, but the book is a long way from dead.
Kristen
Kristen L. Metzger
Library & Information Center
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution
5600 U.S. 1 North : :
Ft. Pierce FL 34946 USA : : :
(772) 465-2400 x201 : <>< :
(772) 465-2446 Fax : <><
metzger@hboi.edu <><
-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Wible [mailto:wible@stanford.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 1:14 PM
To: welborn@cats.ucsc.edu
Cc: iamslic@ucdavis.edu
Subject: [IAMSLIC:2808] Re: Request for comments on Int'l Coral Reef Sym on
CD only
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
_____
_____
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! <http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com> Mail
Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up
<http://rd.yahoo.com/mail/mailsig/*http://mailplus.yahoo.com> now
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 10:53:20 PST