NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/notabene/3491

Text File | 1993-01-28 | 2.8 KB | 58 lines

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Date:         Wed, 27 Jan 93 13:02:44 -0500
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From:         "Robert A. Kelly" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: scholarly authors as compositors?
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On Wed, 27 Jan 1993, Peter Parisi wrote:

> Of course, it also seems clear, that for the publishing house this way of
> proceeding effects some significant economies in a business none too
> lucrative.  But at what cost in scholarly energy and quality of the
> publication?
>

Peter has hit on one of my pet rants and raves.  This is not only a
problem of publishing.  Throughout the academic/scholarly vocation the
teacher/scholar is being expected to do things that other people used to
do, such as type and print syllabi, type-set books, etc.  This means that
there are less jobs and those lucky enough to be employed have to do more
work.  Of course, our love of technology and the quality of programs such
as Nota Bene both adds to and helps solve the problem (what was it you
said a while back, Mervyn, about if I know about something and I don't
have it, that's a problem that needs a solution--I forget the exact
sense?).  At the same time academic administrators seem to have become
terribly confused about the difference between a university and a factory.
Somehow knowledge and human beings of character are supposed to be
produced in the same way as widgets, and production quotas are the order
of the day.  Its almost as if as someone has come up with the perfect
strategy for preventing people who care from finding knowledge or helping
form people of character.

Of course, scholarly publishing is a money losing proposition, and the
cheaper the cost of each book, the more books that will be published.  We
can help through the use of computers, laser printers, etc.  And, its not
that publishers have never asked for camera-ready copy--it's just that it
used to be ugly camera-ready copy.  And there were always academic
publishers that required significant "subventions" (which being translated
is sort of like a high-class bribe) before they would publish your book.
Somehow I always seem to have more camera-ready copy than cash, so ....

_______

Robert A. Kelly
Waterloo Lutheran Seminary/Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Ave. W.
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 5K5                 519-884-1970, ext. 2853
Internet: [e-mail]            Fax: [phone]