Implications of Electronic Publishing on Library and Information Centres

Annals of Library Science and DocLim entation 46, 4; 19l)9; 12 1- 125 .

IMPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRES

Anjali Gulati Lecturer Department of Library & Informati on Scie nce Isabella Thoburn College Lucknow

Electronic publishing has put forth a spectrum of WHAT IS EP? problems and issues in libraries, end-users in general and th e information professionals in Lancaster (1) defines EP as, a publication process particular. In electronic era, the role of information where the manuscripts are submitted in electronic Professional is many fold, a continuaus learner, format, edited, printed, and even distributed 10 an alert user, an expert information broker and readers (users) in electronic form by employing consultant, all rolled into one. It specially discusses computers and telecommunication techn ology. the major issues and challenges in electronic The published information is distributed on state­ publishing such as accessibility, acceptability. of-the-art medium CD-ROMs, Networks (on-lin e, copyright and pricing, standardization, credibility Internet, ISDN), etc. and technical issues etc. Further it gives emphasis on the advantages and problems with electronic Eelctronic Journal publishing. Electron ic serials may be defined very broadly as INTRODUCTION any journal, magazine, e'zine, webzine, newsle tter or type of electronic se ri al publica ti on which is Necessity is the mother of invention. Customer's available over the Intern et. Within thi s broad demands are the biggest driving force for the definition the titles can be electronically accessed organisation of activities and changes in means using different technologies such as th e World of production of goods and seNices. The combined ' Wide Web (WWW), gopher,ftp, teln et, e-ma il or effect of computer and telecommunication listserv. (2) technology has almost converted the world into an electronic village. Electronic village has NEED FOR EP-SERIAL CRISIS extended its form as Electronic Publishing (EP), which started mostly with reference works, and Need to support paper and electronic methods then reached to machine-readable databases of kn owl edge dissemination parallely, being of indexing/abstracting services. The EP is increasingly subject to widespread usage of Information needed by faculty and students is publishers of scholarly, academic and reference increasing exponentially in the sciences, work s from almost all fields of human kn()wledge. Interdisciplinary researc"hlnew fields of Rapid increase in the price of many printed research have increased the sCientist's need scholarly journals and the general improvement for new information, in the technological infrastructure, are some of the many reasons for the emergence of EP. Thus Rising cost of journal publications coupled with leading to a situation whereby certain journals are the explosive growth in research and the published only in the form of digital media. concomitant explosion of paper journals in

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various disciplines have made it impossible include issue of single articles versus full issues for most libraries to maintain a comprehensive of EJ, copyright, user friendliness, pricing, selection of literature. [3] intellectual properly rights, profeSSiona l role, networks , incompatible hardware and soft ware, ROLE OF LIBRARIAN OR INFORMATION formatting graphics, scholarly recognition and PROFESSIONAL obsolescence. The prob lems o f crc dihi lily, accessibility, permanence etc. are disc ussed Cybernetic theme of the lib rarian is to serve th e below. society by providing hi gh quality services and prod ucts to meet th e needs of th e users of an AccessiiJility in formation system/library with extensive use of the present technologies. However, the emergence The EPS will be easier to access only when th e of Internet and electronic publishing continue to necessary telecommunications link and computer widen th e role of librari ans. Librarian, acting as a system is available to th e user. Incompatible custodian of information has gone through a hardware and software , th e gap betwe(~ n dramatic ch ange and from providing documents develop9 d and less developed countries . to his cli entele, has switched to be an information geopolitical compulsions are some of the related pro vider, th us implying a shift in emphasis from a issues, wnich influence th e accessibility of an EJ . caretaker to a person who provides physical Unless the users are trained in the mechanics 01 access to th e collection. The role of the librari an search and retrievaJ techniques, th e [ J tllough as a navigator has intensified in magnitude 'a vailable' will be inaccessible. This ca ll s for eventually leading to a greater orienation toward s establi sh ing training faci lities for the subscri be rs so und and video. In this context it is not easy for or users to access EJs through networks. [5] the librari an to learn and keep himself up to date with tile latest technolog ical advancement s made Acceptability in his professional area of work, more precisely, the knowledge and skill acquired today is next to The readers and authors prefer conventi onal obsolete tomorrow. prestigious journals to co nsult or publish. This may be linked to their promotion, apPointmen ts etc. An yone who has access to a computer in a Technology has not percolated to requ irecJ level to network can easily become an au thor as well as make electronic publications acceptable on par witil publis her In such an en vironment there is every thei r printed counter parts. However, in future it IS chance of altering the documents frequently and expected ~ h at. researcher may heavily use networks it is difficuit for the librari an to visualize the and e- mail for scientific communication. This will origina lit y of a document. Moreover problems of necessitate speedy publication and distri bu ti on of intellectual property right, lack of proper standards scholarl y publications, thus enchancin g th e to be followed, what to be organized. etc gains acceptability as well as the number of EJ s. momentum. As automation and inflation add to the cost of doing business in libraries, librarians for Display Incompatibilities collection development are finding it imperative to allocate funds that will facilitate to meet th e needs Unlike a piece of paper th at holds a simi la r vi su;:) 1 of th e information hungry and impatient use rs. experience for anyone who reads it , there arc display Further th e role of the librarian of th e future would incompatibil ities for electron ic publications. With the be heavily involved in the electonic documents us e of computer displays, visual experience for delivery and repackaging of information in the form identical pieces of information can be greatly altered of EP. [4] by such factors as screen 'fo nts or oth er monitor formats, p.xel sizes and resolution etc. [6] ISSUES AND CONCERNS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING Intellectual Ownership

The problems and concerns of publishers, library The task of determining authorsllip, wh ic h em li (~r and information centres as well as subscribers was clear cut with print and recorded items yea rs

Ann I.ih Sci Doc IMPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRES

ago became muddied by widespread use of and through different access points. The hardware machine copying capabilities. Now the task has and software are also to be standardised to make become complicated by the items that can be easy information retrieval irrespective of the mR ke manipulated, li nked, transformed and replicated of tile machine. A common command inlormalioll electronically. While it may be possible to detect retrieval language, which can work witt) any so rt unauthorized copies on paper or magnetic tape. it of computer and retrieval softwa re. may be useful m ay be difficult, if not impossible, to detect in such situations. The problem is not a lack of unauthorized digital copies. As a result further standards but, conversely, that there are so many proliferation of unauthorized reproductions has of them. Paper-based information requires onl y weakened copyright laws related to publishing and one's ability to read. [10) access industries. [7) Credibility Copyright and Pricing With regard to credibility of EJ, it doesn't carry th e The vexing issue, which is already problematic with same weight as print journals in academic context paper journ als. is the ownership of the literature . neithe r th ey a re acce pted nor s up po rted b y Current copyright law is inadequate for th e EJ universities because EJ publishing effort s may not because EJ a re distributed via means such as the be recognized as an official university activity. Til e Inte rn e t or FTP. The se problems can be peer interest that generates the autho rshi p and counteracted to some extent by technological readership of print journals may not exi st. [11 ] measures, such as encryption techniques which ensure that the images of journal article are only Permanence accessible through sites which are subscribed, or w aterm arking tehniques which give the user a Wilson [12) points out that authors are te rrified by guarantee of authenticity. [8) ephemeral nature of electro nic documents and a rchives. Many EJs are presentl y a rc hi ved in Preservation and Conservation compute rs centres. Co m puter ce ntrE'; ca nnot continue to archive schola rship. In addition to th iS The library and informati on professionals Ilave the the selection, acquisition, o rganization, provi sion re s po nsibility t o preserve information in and presentation of knowledge is the domain of comparable electronic formats as equivalent to libraries, not computer centers. print fo rmat. So now to maintain the long term integrity of the contents of EJ s, librarians should Technical Issues adopt some measures for the safe archival of EJs and to protect them from external interference and EJs are often limited in the following ways:- alterations by restricting the use in-house, when it is not commercially available. There is limited capacity of some user's E-mail accounts. So to sum up, legislation sho uld allow fo r the conve rsion of copyrig ht protected text and images Existing tools for creatin g, distri buting and into d igital form a t fo r preservation and utilizing network-based EJs a re in an earl y conservation purposes by librarians and archivists. stage of development. Legislation should also provide for legal deposit of cert ain electronic media. [9) A s file transfers become la rg e r and mo re common there is the potential fo r c reatin g Standardisation network performance problems.

Paper based conventions such as book, title page, There is a lack of user-frie ndly softwa re . chapter. subheading, table of contents, glossary Sophistical€d browsing capabilities are not and index are commonly accepted, yet there is no available. equivalent standard for electronic information. At present EJs are availabl e in various forms, format There is lack of security.

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ADVANTAGES OF EP articles. Most of the publishers of E-journals are providing keywords, autllor search, term s The advantages of electronic publishing are: reducing the role of additional indeXing and abstracting e.g. Eme rald Library (http: // 1. Maintenance of updated information www.emerald-library.com) ; mcb pu blishers (http://www.mcb.co.uk) and Ariad ne JOlJrn Cl I Data can maintain aptitude so that buyer will (http://www.ariandne. ac.uk). be able to purchase the latest version of publications. 7. MuWple access

2. On demand publishing Most of the publishers of E-journals are coming up with site license policy, provid in9 The individual subscribes can be provided with multIple access and access througll tile only those documents. which match their campus LAN. profiles, and can be charged accordingly. 'On demand publishing' also allows retrospective 8. Manageability searching and SOl. Electronic information can easily be mana~led 3. Information retrieval Just-in-time by adding bookmarks and personal no t e ~ ; to the sites or by down'loading it to private files L & ICs need not 'buy publication' to access the or databases for copying and editing. information in it. they can have online access to the EJ s and download or print the required PROBLEMS OF EP material. EP provides aids for connectivity, audio visualisation, custornizability, creation and Some of the problems in electronic publishing are: revision of documents, interactivity, and rapid information retrieval. a) High initial cost

4. Speed EP indudes hi gh initial costs to the publi shers as well as L & ICs have to invest before Publication of EJs saves the tu rn-around time, ben efits are expected. i. e., the time lag in submission, refereeing , vi sion. editing, composing, printing , binding, b) Incompatible Hardwa're and Software and forwarding which is eliminated by sing computer and communication networks. This The non-compatibility of hardware due to th e enhances timely publication and is su itable to absence of common standards. and tile usage the letters-type journals where rapid of different retrieval software by diff erent communication is of utmost importance. This publishers. The acceptance of EJs depends leads to further red uci ng th e gap between the upon the uSElr-friendly retrieval software. e.g. author and the end-user. norm ally printout of the articles is taken as and wh en one browses through the arti cle on 5. Distribution Internet but problem comes when th e articl e is in acrobat format or in Photos hop format. The major ad vantages of E-journals are their global distribution, their hyperlinks, and th e c) Wea k Infrastructure of Computer and ab il ity to access from different sites and ability Communication Network to search . As a prerequisite, EPs necessitate the proper 6. Retrieval availability of a computer and communicati on network to the subscriber. Th ere are a good number of sea rch engi nes d) Gap between Developed and Developing available to access and retrieve the appropriate Countries

1\ 1111 I.ill ,')c i /)Oc' IMPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING ON LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRES

The gap between developed and developing http://5 u n 5 ite. be r ke ley.e d u/U C D Ll countries (those who can access and those report.html who can not) makes the EPs an elitist technology. 4. GULATI (Anjali) and ABDUL JALEEL (T) . Electronic publishing on the Internet: Some e) Inreadability reflections. CALIBER-97, INFLIBNET Centre, 6-8 March 1997, Patiala. 146- 148. EJ may take some time to percolate down to the reader level mainly due to the problem of 5. MOORTHY (A Lakshm ana) and displaying page images conveniently on KARISIDDAPPA (C R) . Electronic publishin(.J : computer screen. For entire page to be impact and implications on library and accommodated the size of the image has to information centres. Digital Li braries: Dynamic be reduced and the low resolution makes it structure of digitized information. Papers difficult to read . presented at the SIS'96 15 th Annu al convention and conference 18-20 January, f) Inconvenient to use 1996 Bangalore .

Ease of use i.e ., re ading at a convenient time 6. MARTIN (Katherine) . Understand in g th e and place, is not possible with EPs. 'There is forces for and against Electronic Inform ation psychologica l feeling that researchers Publishing.CD-ROM Professional. July/August generally read more outside their work place, 1994.p. 129-134. thus requ irin g portable reading material. 7. MOORTHY (A). op Cit. g) Delay in release 8. COPYRIGHT and the digital environment. This In many instances, when the publication is statement has been prepared by the LA/JCC issued in both printed and electroni c forms, working party on Copyright which represent s the electronic version is released aft er a gap th e members of the following organi zation. of th ree to four weeks. A slib , The Association for Information Management etc. Managing Information. Vol h) User Training 3(1 /2) . Jan/Feb'96.p25-26:

Another problem is necessity of training for 9. GULATI (Anjali). Dangers of electronic the subscribers and readers, and multiple publishing: A Reality. CALIBER -9 8 , copying licence/charges. INFLIBNET Centre , 4-5 M arc h 1998 , Bhubaneswar. P.339-347. REFERENCES 10. MARTIN (K). op cit. 1. LANCASTER (F W) Electronic publishing. Library Trends. 37, 3; 1987; 316-25. 11 . BERGE (Zane L) and COLLINS (Mauri Pl. IPCT Journal of re aderShip survey. JA SIS. 47 , 2. WHAT IS an electronic journal. 9; 1996, 701-10. http://www.coalliance.org/ejournal/what i5.html 12. WILSON (0 L) . Testing time for electroni c journals. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 3. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DIGITAL Sept. 11 , 1991 , A22-24. LIBRARY: A framework for pl anning & strateg ic In itiatives.