Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
national reputation for his work on the scute region of the X chro
mosome in Drosophila melanogaster (
Dictionary of Scientific
Biography
, volume 17, page 3). Looking at this example a bit fur
ther, it turns out that Agol was a scientist in Russia, fell out of fa
vor with Stalin, and was executed. Subsequent references became
scarce—particularly in Russia—and this information has not been
placed on the Web. References to Agol's work are available on the
Web, but not the work itself.
In a related area, the scanning and indexing of historic docu
ments, newspapers, journals, and books is both time consuming and
expensive. For these reasons, the availability of these materials on
the Web may be limited.
Electronic storage of materials also can be a factor. Over the
years, storage costs continue to decrease as technology improves,
and this can help the process. However, machines function only
with regular maintenance and oversight, and this work represents
an ongoing expense.
If organizations or companies have limited budgets (and they of
ten do), then economic and personnel factors can prevent materials
from becoming available on the Web. Such factors are particularly
significant if the conversion of old materials to a Web format will
generate significant expenses with the anticipation of little or no
revenues when the process is completed.
The relationship between the Web and relatively new materials
is somewhat more complicated, due to issues of copyright and eco
nomics. For example, suppose a professional organization publishes
a monthly journal, and one issue each year is devoted to papers pre
sented at a conference. (In practice, this situation is quite common
for many professional societies.) For many years prior to the devel
opment of the World Wide Web, the journal was made available
free to members; libraries and nonmembers could purchase issues at
a relatively high subscription rate. This financial arrangement en
couraged membership; members received the wellrespected journal,
but access for nonmembers was either expensive (through subscrip
tions) or less convenient (through libraries). Also, for the organiza
tion, payment from nonmembers provided income to help offset
various editorial and production costs.
With this historical background, consider the impact of the
Web. The organization still wants to encourage membership, so
