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 Vol 4() No 4 Deccmher 1999 12 1 ANJALI GULATI 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.

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