Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
There is nothing more amusing than watching business interests work
themselves up into righteous frenzy over a threat to their monopoly
profits from a new technology or some upstart with a different business
model; the monopolists (or their first cousins the oligopolists) try to
present themselves as the champions of the consumer, or defenders of a
level playing field, as if they had not become ridiculously rich by
sticking it to consumers and enjoying years in which the playing field
was tilted to their advantage.
(Pearlstein, 2006)
Journal publishing is not the only area of the publishing industry that will
change. Publishers of reference material have been close on the heels of
the journal publishers in the move to the internet. Reference publishing
business has transferred well to the internet, because of its business
model, largely sales to libraries rather than to the individual, and because
its format works more effectively when published as a database. Database
organization and web functionality mean that reference entries can be much
more easily searched than is possible in the print world. An example is
the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
. In the print format it is 60
volumes of 56,862 entries. Entries are organized in the usual alphabetical
order, and the user needs to know what they are looking for in order to
find it. With web technology the online version of the
Oxford Dictionary
of National Biography
is always fully up to date, and it can be searched in
seconds. Searches can be organized by the name of an individual, but also
by place, a particular sphere of activity, or within a particular time. Such
a search might take years using the 60 volumes of the printed book.
However, despite the wonderful functionality of the reference
database, the future of the reference publisher is not certain. There is a
significant threat in the form of Wikipedia. Will publishers of
subscription material on the invisible web be able to compete with the
visible and free Wikipedia?
While journal and reference publishers have made the transition to
online publishing, other sectors of the publishing industry have been
slow to make the move or have actively resisted it. One of the main
drivers of resistance is the lessons learned from the music publishing
industry and the fear that electronic books will be illegally downloaded,
shared and pirated (Pearlstein, 2006).
Most resistant to a move to electronic platforms are the textbook
publishers. The bulk of their revenues come not from libraries but from
