The Dark Side of Online Journals
College & Research Libraries—perhaps the most eminent journal addressing academic library issues in the United States—recently published an article that offers a clear and forceful summary of mainstream opinion about the transition from printed to electronic library materials that is currently underway. The author's first two of five recommendations deal specifically with this transition: "complete the migration from print to electronic collections," he advises, and "retire legacy print collections" (i.e., discard paper copies). I stress that such recommendations are squarely within the mainstream of professional library opinion today; it is not my desire to criticize one librarian or one article. Yet before libraries decide to act further on such recommendations, there is more to understand about the economics of scholarly publishing.
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