Electronic Expectations

<p>This book first published in 1999 analyses the convergence of financial technical and public policy considerations that turned what seemed like science fiction twenty years ago into a library fact of life today. It shows that while electronic publication greatly speeds issuance of important scientific results of enduring value it also has the potential to lower the economic threshold at which crank papers and marginal publications can gain a wide if sadly misled audience in the short run. It demonstrates that while scientists invented the web they no longer control it and that even the very largest research organizations libraries publishers and journal aggregators will to a substantial degree be at the technological and economic mercy of commercial users of the web.</p>