Print or Electronic Serials?

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This paper is from a class about serials in which we were asked to write a response to a question asked by the professor. The response notes the opinions of various authors on the question of "print vs. digital" serials. It would seem that with so much information moving online the question has been settled. Yet as the essay points out,the question is still with us. The essay evaluates various models,some of which have been suggested by authors,and others which are actually in place such as Project Muse. It seems to be the perennial debate: print vs. electronic? Although this paper deals mostly with print and electronic journals,it raises some questions and solutions which also concern novels and non-fiction works. I am not entirely convinced that people want to eliminate paper reading materials. We cannot however be blind to what convenience the electronic medium has over paper in terms of searching and storage. Hopefully the "hybrid" model will continue to be used.

"Our journal enviornment at this point can be described as 'hybrid'; namely libraries (particularly academic and special ) have both print and electronic journals in their collections. Although we have talked about serials in general this semester, we have gravitated towards electronic journals. Does this mean that we can abandon print journals or newspapers altogether? What do you see as the future of journals or the newspapers? What are the ramifications for libraries?"

Concerning whether the library relies upon print or electronic the first point to be considered is money. Does the library have enough to subscribe to both print and electronic? The second is the question of access. Will the library be able to access the journals ten,thirty ,or one hundred years from now? The third point is copies. Regarding funding,with the recent recession I am sure that libraries have had to bear the burden of cuts like everyone else. The question of funding also comes to the forefront in the area of storage. In an article about this problem Sam Rogers exclaims,"...the university must decide whether to store the archive locally or hire out a third party to manage and maintain it. It will represent a perpetual point of maintenance,requiring funding and attendance. Either the library ,the publisher,or a third party has to maintain the archive,thus incurring additional expenses.¹ Let us imagine the university is located on valuable land in a city. Will there be funding to acquire more land to expand library archives? Doubtful. However,the space needed to keep electronic archives,such as CD ROM will be much smaller than that needed to contain paper copies.

Unfortunately,it seems that the library will have to use the life raft test. Imagine all the library was on a boat that was slowly sinking. The life rafts contain only a little space. And given that they are expensive,there are only a few rafts. Much more information will be available to be saved,if it is saved electronically. If we rely primarily on paper,the life rafts will be overwhelmed,and we will not be able to save as much information. In spite of my enthusiasm for electronic saving,I am still reluctant to see paper discarded. I think we should still retain paper copies of the most important journals. In my paper on Project MUSE I found an interesting bit of information. According to the Frequently Asked Questions area,"The 'edition of record' of these journals is still the paper form..."².

If a major operation such as Project MUSE still relies upon paper for the final edition,I think that libraries must follow them with their most important journals. In an article about this subject Colin Storey notes,"Libraries may well be on the verge of repudiating a long-standing public trust in their roles as cautious conservationists simply in order to deal with less print-to realize a 'print-less' heaven. If they do so, they would be actively jettisoning their professional heritage for short term political and economic considerations" ³(2010,75). I certainly have no hope for a 'print-less' heaven. I would however want to get as much information as possible in a small space. Books take up room. Room costs a lot of money. The library budget is quite finite.

I am aware of the danger of relying primarily on electronic storage. In an article on this subject Stemper and Barribeau note that Project MUSE has a storage backup available for libraries,yet they state,"...the non-searchable format of their content does not sound very useful and may well imply significant,hidden set-up costs for the library to make the dataset searchable (such as metadata tagging )..."⁴ Granted. However we are not dealing with a win-win situation. Given a limited amount of money we must choose between the bad and the worse. It seems best to have both electronic and paper versions of the most used journals,and electronic backup if possible,of our less used journals.

In Storey's article the author quotes J. Gomez who exclaimed,"However,no matter how much we treasure the book,what's really important is the culture of ideas and innovation that books represent. It's the culture that is at stake,not the publishing companies or the fate of bookstores,or even the book itself as a physical form"⁵(2008,107). If we substitute journals for books we get the same idea. I think there is still a distrust of the electronic medium for long time storage. We should not be too afraid. Beethoven's 9th Symphony has managed to survive radio,television,record,compact disk and the iPod.

A small,but nonetheless important point is to remember what the electronic journal can do. I was amazed at the reaction I received when I showed the class the HTML version of an article which featured classical art. Indeed the print journal did include the same artwork. Of course the artwork in the journal was black and white. This is akin to watching a fireworks show on a black and white television. With the HTML version of the article⁶ you could enlarge the color image,seeing an intricate mosaic. We should also not forget the amazing capability of searching on an electronic format as compared to paper. In an article about the difference between searching online and at the library James A. Buczynski writes,"...today's library users are accustomed to self service. They don't want to go through gatekeepers with limited contact hours. They want it now.⁷". With paper, you are forced to obey the hours of the library,carry your laptop with you,and have plenty of post-it notes so you can remember that excellent phrase you encountered. With online,you can stay up till three in the morning,have a fresh pot of coffee and a nice little online search trail to remind you of that perfect article you wanted to investigate further.

To tell the truth however,I hope all this online information does not put librarians out of a job. If people can get all this information online,what do they need us for? I know, that is a subject for a paper or even a book. Once again Colin Storey remarks,"... just because librarians may be a little paranoid does not mean there are not threats to their very existence out there. Nor are librarians the only profession to worry about the future. ICT professionals worry about the de-mystification and democratization of computing⁸". I worry about my future. I have worked quite a long time in meeting the requirements for this degree. I pray that it will not be rendered obsolete by the computer.

Bibliography

1. Sam Rogers,"Survey and Analysis of Electronic Journal Licenses for Long Term-Term Access Provisions in Tertiary New Zealand Academic Libraries," Serials Review, 65(2009):3-15. doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2008.11.002.

2. "Frequently Asked Questions,"Project MUSE,accessed Feb. 10,2011,http//muse.jhu.edu/about/muse/faq .html

3. Colin Storey,"Bibliobabble? The surge towards a print-less e-library recasts academic librarians as 'rare book engineers'" Library Management,32,½,(2011): 73-84. doi:10.1108/01435121111102593.

4. Jim Stemper and Susan Barribeau,"Perpetual Access to Electronic Journals: A Survey of One Academic Research Library's Licenses" Library Resources and Technical Services,50,2,(2006):91-109. OmniFile Full Text Mega,Wilson Web.

5. J Gomez,Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age. Macmillan,London. Cited in:Colin Storey,"Bibliobabble? The surge towards a print-less e-library recasts academic librarians as 'rare book engineers'" Library Management ,32,½,(2011): 73-84. doi:10.1108/01435121111102593.

6. Theophoroumene mosaic,Mytilene. After Charitonidis,Kahil and Ginouves 1970,pl. 6,1. Courtesy of the Editors of Antike Kunst. Cited by: Sebastiana Nervegna. "Menander's Theophoroumene between Greece and Rome." American Journal of Philology 131, No. 1 521 (Spring 2010) Accessed Feb 10,2011. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_journal_of_ philology/v131/131.1.nervegna.html.