Librarians as Publishers: a new ROLE IN SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION

摘要

It seems every day brings tales of new initiatives in digital publishing. More and more, it appears that more and more organizations, beyond traditional publishers, are getting involved and see a future in this area. In particular, libraries have begun launching initiatives that attempt to address successfully the needs of a growing population of Internet users who wish to have access to research and educational material in digital form. What does this activity mean for librarians and publishers? What roles are libraries taking in scholarly publishing? Are libraries doing this independently or in collaboration with traditional publishing organizations? What impact will these activities have on the position of libraries in the field of scholarly communicatio n as a whole? In an effort to explore these questions, I spoke with a group of people working at the forefront of library publishing to gain insight into the significance of these activities and to identify some ways in which such activities may affect the future of both libraries and publishers.