At this year’s Librarians’ Day in Germany, discussion ranged from librarian training to Open Access to ensuring the future libraries as social gathering places.
Data Mining for STM Content Offers Opportunities, Obstacles
While demand for data mining of scholarly content is mounting, lack of standardization of search technologies, interfaces and licensing terms hinders its use.
Medical Publishing as a Model for Future Growth
Paula Gantz reports from the recent STM conference in London where the hot topics were subscription models, new revenue streams, Chinese opportunities, & more.
Making Open Access Pay
By Siobhan O’Leary BERLIN: Last month’s annual German Book Office Editor’s Trip to Berlin and Munich brought six university press editors from the US together with an array of German scholarly and STM publishers. Participants included Marguerite Avery, Senior Acquisitions Editor, The MIT Press; Jean Black, Executive Editor, Yale University Press; Jennifer Crewe, Associate Director and Editorial Director, Columbia University …
What Business Models Will Work Best for Academic Publishing in the Future?
By Edward Nawotka Yes, it’s a huge question. But the general consensus is the university and academic publishing models are broken. Under pressure from funding bodies to make enough money to be self-sustaining, many university presses have turned away from their core mission of publishing monographs and original research to publishing trade-oriented titles (with mixed results). Those that have stuck …
Behold, It Lives! Frankentext! (Or How Textbook Publishing Got So Scary)
• The textbook, the revered embodiment of knowledge for more than 150 years, had turned into Frankentext, The Monster: overstuffed, overpriced, and unloved. • Eric Frank, co-founder of Flat World Knowledge, explains why and what might be done to thwart the monster. Editorial by Eric Frank, co-founder, Flat World Knowledge (with a little help from Mary Shelley and Mel Brooks) …
German Buch News: Parliamentary Support for Google
By Siobhan O’Leary The Research Services group of the German Parliament is now weighing in on the pros and cons of Open Access and Google Book Search. As reported in Boersenblatt, the group has issued a 19-page letter stating that opposition to the concept of Open Access is nearly impossible to comprehend. The report praises the transparency of Google’s compensation …
Hyperbolic Heidelberg Appeal Distracts from Real Issues in Germany’s Literary Future
Editorial by Rüdiger Wischenbart Is the glass half empty or half full? At the moment, German publishing circles are absorbed in a very public debate over the digital future, one that threatens to split the literary establishment from the younger generation of “digerati” and “digital natives.” The debate was prompted in March after literature professor Roland Reuss (at left) published …