I certainly can see the need to keep paper journals, but the reality of the
situation is that I spend more time reading PDFs of papers (or PDFs that I've
printed) than I do actual *bound* journals. As a graduate student, I used to
walk across campus and spend every Friday afternoon in the library reading the
latest journals directly of the racks. Of course I was limited to the journals
that my library happened to subscribe to, but at least I was keeping up with
most of the newest findings in my field.
As technology progressed, I then spent every Friday morning on the Web of
Science looking up keywords and limiting my search to papers published within
the past 14 days or so. The ability to find papers published in journals I
didn't even know existed was very exciting. I'd then get a PDF of the paper,
and I wouldn't even have to leave my lab. It's been a while since I was
required to <heaven forbid> walk over to the library and pull a journal off the
shelf. Technology sure is wonderful.
That being said, I only read what my key-word searches bring me now a days, and
I miss the articles that would catch my eye (even though they had nothing to do
with my field). I sure do miss those Friday afternoons in the library
somedays.....
Cheers
Chris
Christopher T. Ruhland, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Sciences
Department of Biology
TS 242 Trafton Sciences Center South
Minnesota State University
Mankato, MN 56001
-----Original Message-----
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David L. McNeely
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 4:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Ecology (the journal) stalled?
---- Lonnie Aarssen <[email protected]> wrote:
> I wonder if Don Strong would explain to us why Ecology is still
> publishing on paper? No ecologist that I know reads paper journals
> anymore, and hasn't for years.
I read paper journals, and I have for years. i hope to be able to continue to
do so.
And libraries
> everywhere are cancelling their paper subscriptions and supporting
> only electronic journal subscriptions.
Libraries are doing everything they can to corral costs, mainly because of the
political climate that is withdrawing funding from education and research
support. The fact that they are cancelling paper journals has nothing to do
with the desirability of keeping them.
When we have only digital information, tell me how that information will be
guaranteed into the future? One of the functions of libraries is curation of
the knowledge we have accumulated. In the 60 year lifetime of digital
information storage and retrieval the media of choice have changed more times
than I care to try to count, from paper punched tapes and cards, to tape, and
so on, with multiple ways of reading those media. Most of them can no longer
be read.
>In the news this week we
> also learned that Encyclopedia Britannica has decided to publish its
> last print edition this year, with only online editions available in
> the future.
Encyclopedia Britannica is not a journal.
>
> Is it not time for Ecology to do the same?
No.
>The
> advantages seem obvious. If Ecology "has a limited number of pages
>that the ESA can afford to publish", then why not simply break free
>from this limitation by publishing electronically only? The
>ecological community could then benefit from a greater number of high
>quality Ecology articles.
and the disadvantages are also obvious.
BTW, I have paper journals on my bookshelves that I have cherished for years.
I hope to keep them until I pass them on to a library that is more
understanding of its curatorial role than those you admire so.
mcneely
