The Liminal Librarian

Since I've finally waded my way out of the Deathly Hallows (and don't even get me started on that ending!), it seems timely to point to "Teens Weigh in on Changes in Publishing, Media" over at O'Reilly Radar. This quote cracks me up:

"As high school students with busy lives, going to a bookstore is just not part of our schedule. It isn't that we don't want to read, but with schoolwork, sports, and personal life, not enough time is left open to both find interesting books, as well as read them."

Yeah, gosh, that is different than when I went to high school... but, sarcasm aside, some thoughts there about reading for information v. reading literature. And about movie hype v. book hype, which displays a pretty major lack of understanding as to the comparative economics there, but so it goes.

On that note, we're also off to play the blogs vs. print game again... Current Cites points to "What a Difference a Publisher Makes" over at OptimalScholarship, with a fascinating look at recent studies on copy editing changes and the implications for repositories. Stephanie Willen Brown at CogSci Librarian asks which is better, blogging or print publishing, and Jim Rettig responds over at Twilight Librarian.

Brown writes: "...does it matter that librarians are writing more on blogs than in print?" Are they? This, I'm not so sure about. Some librarians are writing more on blogs than in print. Some librarians are reading more on blogs than in print. Some librarians still wouldn't know a blog if it came up and bit them. I think it's more useful to argue that different formats serve different purposes. Brown quotes Stephen Abram along the lines of: "It doesn't matter where you write, just get your ideas out there." Well, yes, and no. It does matter where you write if you're working towards tenure. It does matter where you write if you are targeting a specific audience, or trying to impress your boss, or your work needs some editing editing, if you are worried about the longevity of your work, or want a bigger audience than might flock to your brand new blog, or ... It does matter where you write if you are concerned about timeliness or if your thoughts flow more freely in a more informal medium or if you have a built in audience online, or ...

In principle, though, Abram has it right. The answer to the question of blogs or print is: YES. The more of us that participate, in whatever medium, the wealthier and more robust our profession.

Then again, publishers don't help themselves in cases like Eric Schnell's, who details his two-year saga over at The Medium is the Message in "Where is My Manuscript? part 1 and part 2. Perhaps one of our measures of a journal's prestige should relate to its responsiveness and timeliness. T. Scott weighs in here with "Publishing Faster," talking about the five-six month turnaround time at JMLA and the basic issues with timeliness and quarterly publication.

Note also his comments on the other issues with Haworth journals when considering where you might yourself wish to publish... Then again, you could always self-publish on Amazon.com!

Labels: amazon, blogging, blogs, editing, haworth, print, publishing, reading