The role of the Publisher in the digital future

[Milan Roeterink]

Dear Harald,

You wrote:
>I've been invited to present a paper at a seminar at Nobelforum, Karolinska
>Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden on January 29 1997 organized by Kibic,
>Karolinska Institutet, Library and Information Center.
>
>The title of the seminar is SCIENCE WITHOUT JOURNALS?! And the title
>of my paper is THE ROLE OF THE PUBLISHER IN THE DIGITAL
>FUTURE.
>
>Representing Scandinavian University Press, I have a fairly good idea of the
>publisher's role in the digital era. However, I would like to learn more about
>the expectations of each and everyone of you.
>
>Please spend a few minutes and give me some input about what you regard
>as the publishers dos and don'ts. What would you like to see and what
>would you definitely not like to be presented? Please also indicate your
>perspective (librarian, scientist, student, etc.).
>
>Thank you very much for your attention.

I am sorry for my rather late reaction on your message, but occasionally 
I didn't check my mail for a couple of days. Anyway, your request for 
some comments on expectations of 'everyone of us about publisher's role 
in the digital future'(I hope you alow me to paraphrase your words this way) 
aroused my curiousity, as I am engaged at the moment (as student library 
and information science) in a investigation in possibilities for developing 
a virtual library for nurses, para- and perimedical professionals at a leading 
Dutch virtual hospital.

It may not be really surprising that this research brouht me to the issue
of electronic publishing, as for this moment any virtual library's virtual
collection ought to consist of (in my eyes anyway) an important core of
controled electronic sources. In this regard I think (and perhaps even fear)
that the digital future won't be so much different from the paper past, and
history may be repetive. Also virtual libraries' core business, as good as
their traditional paper & shelves counterparts', will be collection development
of (electronic) resources, and the care for indexing, storage, retrieval and
user supply. Libraries are not in the position to create these controlled
resources on their own, though I presume that many of them do really regret 
this, for in many cases the dependence on publisher's monopolies (and often
related
charges for journal subscriptions) are cause of serious budgetairy trouble. From
my experiences with publishing a small scale philosophical journal in the
Netherlands I think libraries still need publishers' services to do the job
for them,
for publishing really requires specialized skills, infrastructure and
(financial) resources. On the other hand, publishers who see themselves as
potential 
(virtual) librarians, may prove to be mistaken too, for libraries' core
business 
as mentioned above requires specialized skills, infrastructure and resources
as well.

I can express as my expectation that in the digital future publishers and
libraries will be even more vigorously condemned to each other as in the past.
As a Dutch (and preaching merchant which every Dutch virtually is) I don't
think publishers won't have any ohter dos and don'ts as to mind their profits,
as good as every librarian has to mind user's satisfaction and frequencies
of use
(or am I cursing now in the church?!). So as a librarian I expect in the
near future
to be employed at a publisher's company or maybe engaged in some joint
venture of say the Dutch Royal Library and Elsevier's publishing company.

Having expressed my expectations, I am still curious hearing some details about
your own ideas as you emphatically said in your message to have. I also
hope that these random reflections will help you a little bit further and
may provoke
some more discussion on this delicate issue, for I am a little disapponted
by the
rather small quantity of reactions at this list on your request (only
two?!). By the
way, I would be grateful to receive a copy/draft (or anything alike) of your
paper
in my post box some day.

Bey and good luck with the presentation of your paper!

Milan Roeterink