[10638] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: 'beta books'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Finnegan)
Fri Sep 20 20:43:58 1996
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 18:23:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: Greg Finnegan <finnegan@husc.harvard.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
In re Karen Coyle's comments:
>
> "O'Reilly has published the "beta" edition of "JavaScript: ..
>acknowledging...that book publishing just can't keep up with the speed of
>technology development.
>
>I've been coming to the conclusion that the future of publishing is in
>information services rather than the production of individual information
>objects. Some evolution in this direction seems to be happening.
>
This is an interesting point, and certainly represents a shift from the
usual 'tablets from the mountaintop' notion of the book as completed (and
polished?) object. But it's not a clean break. The late Sol Tax, a major
figure in anthropology and anthropological journals, was a founder of LARG,
the Library-Anthropology Resource Group, a roughly even mix of
anthropologists and librarians (and some of us who were both) which over
the years has prepared a number of reference tools for that field.
Committee-written works magnify each individual's insecurities about
comprehensiveness and completion. Sol used to argue forcefully against
these tendencies by arguing that the need was to get out a tool to be used,
and that omissions would be pointed out by users and could be added to
subsequent editions. It's easy to argue that electronic technology is a
better medium for such a dynamic work, but it's still interesting to note
that the idea of *published* scholarship as an interactive, collaborative,
collective, and never-finished body of work can be seen to apply to
"individual information objects" as well as the cumulation of a
discipline's production.
Gregory A. Finnegan, PhD
Associate Librarian for Public Services
and Head of Reference
Tozzer Library
Harvard University
21 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge MA 02138-2089
617-495-2253 fax 617-496-2741
gregory_finnegan@harvard.edu
"...have mercy on us all --Presbyterians and Pagans alike -- for we are all
somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending."
MOBY-DICK, chapter 17.
