Search

Resolution of issues concerning electronic archives plays an important role in the transformation of paper informations to electronic journals. Issues concerning technical proficiency, permanence, location and trusteeship are the things that need to be resolved by the library community and publishers. In the face of information transition from paper to electronic journals, identification of the need to create electronic archives and to facilitate its creation are important aspects for the library community and publishers to resolve.

The publishing industry in general, and the abstracting and indexing (A&I) industry in particular, find themselves in the midst of significant change. There has been an explosion of technology that continues to drive significant growth in directory databases, that in turn has lead to an incredible growth in information discovery, access, and search-and-retrieval systems. Overlay upon this scenario trends in open access publishing and the new information mindsets developing within the user community, and an increasingly complex new information infrastructure emerges. Has this growth and change advanced scientific and scholarly communication? Has the increase in information access and retrieval generated parallel revenue increases within the publishing and A&I communities? And will the free search engines of today be the predominant information sources of the future? This paper examines the trends that have shaped today's information environment and suggests a future success scenario for traditional publishers and A&I services who are willing and able to apply their significant skills and expertise in meeting the needs of the new breed of information seekers.

The Open Access movement has been with us in various disguises for the last decade or so. Initially driven by the idealistic notion that technology would free us from the Faustian grip of the academic (paper) publishers by offering a cheap and superior alternative, it is now slowly realized that the 'old' system is remarkably more robust than originally thought and that publishers do offer (some) added value after all. Fuelled by the 'serials crisis', for which, conveniently, the (commercial) publishers are blamed, it has managed to make converts in the library world as a liberating solution to their budgeting problems and those who caused them. The reality is, however, that the movement has failed to bring about its utopia and the most promising prospects are currently experimenting with business models that show some fundamentally flaws, both from a financial and from an author incentive point of view. The speaker will argue that the access situation has improved dramatically over the past 7 years and that there is little evidence that the current players (authors, readers/users, librarians, publishers, etc.) are dissatisfied to such an extent that the Open Access revolution will fill the deeply felt need it claims to do.