Library Acquisitions: Pmctice 14 Theory, Vol. 16, pp. 155-160, 1992 0364~6408/92 $5.00 + .OO

Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright 0 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd.

FEiiilER RIVER INSTITUTE 1991

ACCESS OR ACQUISITION: THE IMPACT AND IMPLICATIONS

OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

WILLIAM FISHER

Associate Professor

Division of Library & Information Science

San Jose State University

San Jose, CA 951924029

Abstract - 171i.s paper lookzs at electronic publishing and its potential impact on the publication and distribution of library materials. Potential barriers to the “‘elec- tronic library ” are also discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Electronic publishing means many things to many people. Depending upon which defini- tion one accepts, electronic publishing is either a fairly recent phenomenon or at least 70 years old. Working with the multitude of definitions available, a composite definition of electronic publishing might read as follows: “the application of electronic technology to the creation, production, and distribution of information, .” all of the different definitions can be accounted for. Some people will define electronic publishing as applying technology to the production of information- for these people computerized typesetting and other manifestations of tech- nology in the production of books, journals, or newspapers is electronic publishing, although the final product is in paper. Others will focus on the distribution side of things and to them the development of things like full-text databases accessible through telecommunications sys- tems represents electronic publishing. (This is referred to by some as parallel publishing, since a paper version of the information is also available.) The distribution group has a number of options, so others in this group will accept any form of electronic delivery of information and thus include videotext, television, and (for the real historian) commercial radio, which then dates electronic publishing back to 1920 and station KDKA in Pittsburgh [ 11. CD-ROMs and other disk-based products could also fall within this group, since they have both delivery and storage capabilities. The last group defines electronic publishing as “paperless” publishing, with all steps in the process utilizing computer technology. For this group, the electronic book and the electronic journal that exist without a paper equivalent are the true products of elec- tronic publishing. There are, of course, other variations on these themes, while elements of

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one group may be easily embraced by the others. For our purposes, we will focus primarily on the idea of the electronic book or journal, although other variations such as CD-ROMs and optical disks will also come into play.

Also, my remarks will not be limited to scholarly or more academic-oriented publishing. While early efforts have focused on this environment, electronic publishing does have impli- cations for all published material. However, for the foreseeable future popular magazines, best-seller type fiction, and popular nonfiction will not be impacted too heavily. The experi- mentation and development of prototypes will come with more library-oriented materials, so many of us will have an opportunity to witness this process.

THE PUBLISHING CYCLE

With that as background, let us look briefly at the principle elements of the publishing cy- cle and how electronic publishing will impact them. Those elements include: the author or cre- ator, the publisher (this also includes the actual production, although the printing and binding may be done by independent entities), the distributor or vendor, the library or bookstore, and the end user or reader who will either be a buyer or a borrower. The first thing to notice is that one of the common threads that keeps all these components together, with the exception of the library borrower, is ownership. This common ownership is possible because informa- tion is one of the few resources that is not destroyed or limited with use. The author owns the original manuscript, and this ownership is legally recognized through copyright. The publisher owns the right to produce and sell the work, and the right is purchased from the author in the form of royalties or sometimes as a direct payment as with “works for hire.” Copyright also protects the publisher’s right to produce that specific work; a right that is obviously impor- tant to publishers since most copyright infringement suits are brought by publishers not by authors. The vendors buy their books from the publishers, giving them the right to resell those items to whomever they can. Depending upon the return policy of the publisher, the vendor is somewhat protected by the ability to send back unsold items. The bookstore works very much the same way the vendors do-buy, resell, or return. The library buys either from ven- dors or directly from the publisher to own the material so others can use it either in the library proper or at home for a specified period of time. The individual buys from bookstores, some- times directly from either a publisher or a distributor, or occasionally, during the annual book sale, from the library with the intent to own the material once the financial transaction is completed.

THE ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING CYCLE

Electronic publishing will have a significant impact on the ownership aspect for most of the components of the publishing cycle. Authors will be influenced because their works will be available to readers/users much sooner. For our academic authors this may not mean much; however, for popular authors the built-in rest/gestation period from manuscript acceptance to final product will be reduced and the pressure to produce will be greater. (And let us face it, just how many places can James Michener be at one time?) Ultimately, because works can be entered into the system quickly, copyright as we recognize it will no longer provide ade- quate protection to authors. A different set of incentives will need to be developed to encour- age creative writers to ply their craft. Without an actual product, the publisher’s role will

Impact and Implications of Electronic Publishing 157

change also. The big question is how much will it change? Rather than trooping around with a stack of manuscripts in their briefcases, editors will never be too far from a terminal. Also, with desktop publishing packages and the like, authors will be able to do for themselves many of the value-added functions that publishers perform. This includes creating indexes and scan- ning in graphics. Copyright will also be a question for the publishers, especially if they no lon- ger own the manuscripts. If every author could become a publisher, then what would the publishers become? Potentially every publisher could become a database vendor along the lines of Dialog or BRS, with each title they “publish” set up as a separate file and the publisher pro- viding access to all those files. Where does this leave the vendors? There may still be a role for this part of the cycle; however, the importance of the vendors will depend on how well the publishers cooperate as they move into their electronic environment. If publishers work together to develop some sort of uniform access to their databases and make that access “user friendly,” then vendors, as well as bookstores and libraries, may become obsolete. On the other hand, if the publishers do not work together (and it would seem that history is on the side of this scenario), then book/serial vendors may go into direct competition with Dialog and BRS to provide access to all those publisher databases. So, Yankee Book Peddler will be- come Yankee Database Peddler.

The other access points for the potential reader/user are bookstores and libraries. Whether they are accessing the material through vendors or directly from publishers, how might book- stores and libraries function in all this? On the bookstore side, the customer would go into the bookstore to buy a book or magazine. The buyer either brings in his/her own disk or buys one at the bookstore. (As we shall see, the boutique business of the future will be in floppy disks.) The bookstore person puts the customer’s disk into the store’s machine, accesses the proper publisher or vendor database, verifies the desired item, and downloads the item or parts of it onto the buyer’s disk. Transactions will be automatically recorded so the buyer pays the bookstore, the bookstore pays the vendor, the vendor pays the publisher, and the publisher pays the author, to keep the current cycle intact.

A transaction with a library customer would work much the same, although a couple of dif- ferent transactions could take place within the library-all of which are analogous to what goes on today. First, the client could need the answer to a specific question. The librarian would access the appropriate database and come up with the answer and give the informa- tion to the client-very similar to the standard reference function we have all come to know and love. Which database might the librarian access? This could happen one of two ways. One, the library would access a continuously updated online source (either directly or through a vendor) to obtain the information; the transaction would be automatically recorded or timed, and the library would be billed for the use of the database and perhaps pass that cost on to the client. Second, the library would have its own database of material purchased and downloaded with the right of unlimited use either working off a local mainframe or perhaps a series of CD-ROMs, but nevertheless an electronic version of today’s reference collection. A second type of library transaction would be similar to the client’s coming into the library to read current material, primarily newspapers and magazines but perhaps books as well. Again, the appropriate database would be accessed either in real time from a vendor or pub- lisher or from an internal database of downloaded material that the library owns. The client would use a menu-driven workstation that would allow page-by-page persual of the desired item. Fees could or could not be charged, based upon the individual philosophy of the library. The third type of transaction would resemble the circulation function and be similar to the bookstore transaction we just saw. The client comes into the library with a floppy or buys one there, the library then downloads the information onto that disk, and away the person goes.

158 W. FISHER

When the circulation period is up, a couple of scenarios would be possible, depending upon the technology available at the time. With dial access, you could do a phone renewal; in fact with dial access you would never have to go to the library (or bookstore for that matter) be- cause the downloading could occur that way. If the material is not brought back on time, the client’s account would be automatically billed for overdue fines, the cost of the item, or some other appropriate charges. Another method might be that the data will stay only in machine- readable form, or the formatting on the disk will last only a certain period of time, so you need to renew the disk to continue to use the information. These considerations, by the way, will be necessary only if some form of copyright is still with us and the economic rights of au- thors and publishers need to be protected. If copyright is not a consideration, then the infor- mation could be downloaded for the client’s use and retained as long as needed. This would be possible right from the start with government information, older items with expired copy- right, and other information in the public domain.

Fairly wild stuff you might think, but the fact of the matter is that many of the components needed for this to be a reality are already in place or well on their way to being established. A number of examples of pure electronic dissemination of information have been in use for the past few years. Earlier trials with electronic journals have met with various degrees of suc- cess. Since some of those first attempts, electronic conferences, bulletin boards, and newslet- ters have gained in popularity on BITnet, Internet and other similar networks. Recently, the University of Houston has taken this one step further with its Public-Access Computer Sys- tems Review, a truly electronic journal that grew out of a computer conferencing network that dealt with issues surrounding public-access computing [2]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is in the process of making a number of electronic journals available through the university’s computer system. Though not currently available, access at Virginia Tech will be through the user’s own computer with dial access into the university’s mainframe or through dedicated terminals available in the library. The library is not planning to allow print- ing from the in-house terminals; however, downloading will be possible [3]. The Library Net- work at AT&T is currently trying to establish a prototype electronic library based on using material transferred into an internal database. One of the key elements in the creation of this database is an agreement between AT&T and the Copyright Clearance Center [4]. It will be interesting to see how this effort progresses and how the agreement holds up with use. Finally, the Xanadu system of Ted Nelson, the creator of hypercard, is designed to allow the univer- sal access discussed above. Nelson and Autodesk, Inc. continue with the development of Xanadu.

It has been well over a decade since Lancaster predicted the “paperless information system” [5]; however, the above-mentioned examples are the exceptions rather than the rule. More re- cent writers in this area have given timeframes of 10 to 15 years to realize anything approach- ing a paperless environment, which puts us nicely into the twenty-first century to realize electronic publications. What then are some of the barriers that need to be removed?

CHALLENGES TO ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

As the title of this paper would lead one to believe, ownership of information is definitely one barrier that needs to be confronted. As we saw earlier, some form of ownership is asso- ciated with virtually every step in the publication cycle. The idea of ownership is tied to copy- right. The question now becomes, can the principle players in the publication cycle look at information as an accessible resource that exists for the common good? If the answer to that

Impact and Implications of Electronic Publishing 159

question can be yes, then the publishing cycle will need to be altered. One potential reconfig- uration will be the creation of a national (or perhaps regional) information system. Authors will either enter their work directly into the system or publishers will continue to exist primarily to play their roles as information gatekeepers to keep the system from being overwhelmed by sheer volume and rendered useless by the introduction of irrelevant or worthless material. Ven- dors, libraries, and bookstores may still be needed as gateways into the systems; however, many, many years from now as the system becomes more user-friendly and as users become more system-friendly, those gateways may not be necessary. The users or borrowers (for in one sense if we go to a true system of access rather than ownership, we will all be borrowers) will get their information from desktop information systems with some sort of portable sys- tem in use as well. If the users are getting the information they need, when they need it, they may be the most satisfied with the system. This satisfaction will depend upon a number of fac- tors such as how easy the system is to use; whether all the access one needs can be available through a personal computer; and the big question: how much is this going to cost the indi- vidual? These are all crucial concerns, because no matter how technologically sound the sys- tem may be or how well received it may be in limited academic circles, unless electronic information is made relevant for everyone, then all the principals concerned will not be to- tally involved and ensure the system’s success.

The financial aspect is the next barrier that needs to be addressed. A big part of the own- ership/copyright scenario is to insure remuneration for the key players in the publishing pro- cess. Will our inalienable rights still include life, liberty, and the pursuit of property (as the Declaration of Independence was originally drafted), or do we need to amend that document to include life, liberty, and access to information? If we support this latter idea, then the sys- tem must be subsidized by “Big Brother” in one fashion or another. The trick here is to some- how keep authors putting quality material into the system by providing adequate rewards or motivating factors. If, on the other hand, the philosophy of private property will still control access to information, then the system will need to be developed complete with electronic me- ters or some type of billing system based on access, usage, and perhaps other factors that will be unique to the actual system itself.

Whatever method of payment is eventually adopted, it is certain to involve some aspect of control, and this is the last barrier to discuss. As wonderful as this system or almost any vari- ation of it may appear, it is also a little scary. The simple fact of the matter is that with a sys- tem like the one just described, a record of everything you access could easily be made and will be made for billing purposes, if necessary. The question then becomes who has access to that record. Would you want people to know about everything you read? Anything you ac- cess that might be labeled subversive, risque, or downright obscene could come back to haunt you. The FBI would have a tailor-made “Library Awareness Program” from the comfort and safety of their own computer room. Chief among the traits of the individual book or jour- nal is its anonymity. When I make a transaction at a bookstore or news stand, the only way that purchase can be traced back to me is through the memory of the sales clerk. Even when I use a credit card at the bookstore, I have never had the clerk write out the titles of every- thing I was purchasing. In the library, while there is a record kept of my transaction, those records are now expressly protected by law in most states. So my habits as an “information junkie” are protected. While an electronic information system may claim it will protect the individual’s privacy, how can anyone be sure?

Just as I was preparing this paper, there was an article in the local paper about a judge who was not enforcing some 1,700 traffic tickets that were issued by virtue of a radar/camera de- vice that takes a photo of any vehicle going over a certain speed programmed into the radar

160 W. FISHER

[6]. A picture is taken of the license plate and the driver, the license is traced through the De- partment of Motor Vehicles, and, boom, a ticket appears in your mailbox a week or so later. There are a number of problems with this system, some legal ones upon which the judge has based his position, but to me the most obvious problem is what if someone else was driving my car? The same problem would exist with an electronic information system-it would know or record what it has been told and that is it. Artificial intelligence aside, I cannot see myself trying to give “my side of the story” to the computer as to why my library material is overdue.

This last barrier, one that impacts the individual user of the information, is crucial for get- ting mass acceptance of any kind of electronic publishing system. Previous attempts at elec- tronic publishing have met with only limited success, if that, and they were done within a fairly controlled environment with users who should have been motivated to use the system. Karen Hunter of Elsevier Science Publishers has stated it very well by saying that librarians and pub- lishers (and I would add users) should work together to create products and systems that will be used. The questions that do not appear to have been fully answered include: is there a mar- ket for this product?; if yes, where does that market exist? and if not, when and where will the market appear? Hunter likens some electronic publishing ventures to the supersonic Con- corde aircraft-it was produced because the technology was available rather than in response to an actual market demand [7].

CONCLUSION

So, what is the upshot of all this? Will we see a day when the information cycle will revolve around access to information rather than ownership of information? Yes, I think that day will come. A system like the one presented here (or one of a number of possible cousins or per- haps even a distant relative) is possible. Will it happen any time soon? No, I do not think so. Even with the technological capabilities in place, the other barriers will take a good deal of time to surmount. What do we do in the meantime? We keep developing new systems. We keep looking at copyright legislation. We keep working on the privacy issues involved, and we keep talking and cooperating. The solutions are out there. All we have to do is find them.

NOTES

1. Browmigg, Edwin B. and Clifford A. Lynch. “Electrons, Electronic Publishing, and Electronic Display,” Infor- mation Technology & Libraries 4 (September 1985), 201.

2. Bailey, Charles W., Jr. “Electronic (Online) Publishing in Action . . . the Public-Access Computer Systems Re- view and Other Electronic Serials,” Online 15 (January 1991), 28ff.

3. Gail McMillan, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in telephone interview by author (1 May 1991). 4. Schaper, Louise Levy and Alicja T. Kawecki. “Towards Compliance: How One Global Corporation Complies with

Copyright Law,” Online 15 (May 1991), 15-21. 5. Lancaster, Wilfrid. Towarok a Paperless Information System. New York: Academic Press, 1978. 6. Klindt, Robert S. “Smile, You’re Getting a Ticket But Photo Radar Systems for Speeders Tries Court’s Limits,”

San Jose Mercury News (5 May 1991), 1A. 7. Hunter, Karen. “Academic Librarians and Publishers: Customers versus Producers or Partners in the Planning

of Electronic Publishing?” Journal of Library Administration 9 (1988), 35-47.