The computer and the print mediaLacy, Dan
doi: 10.1007/BF02680396pmid: N/A
The computer offers extensive advantages over even the most advanced printing and information distribution technologies. Most important, it brings into the public compendium quantities of information too vast to be embodied in print. The computer has increased the power of societies, just as the printing press did. It also has the capacity to change our basic conception of reality and alter the power of the word. Because of its capacity to alter society, basic issues of access and privacy must be resolved as a new information infrastructure is created, comparable to that existing for print.
Now is the time: Book publishing in RussiaShatzkin, Leonard
doi: 10.1007/BF02680397pmid: N/A
A unique combination of circumstances has created opportunities for foreign publishers to invest in Russia. A hunger for books, an unsettled distribution system, availability of publishing personnel, and low costs have created a good environment for entering the marketplace. But it is not a chance for quick profits.
The challenge of being small and unknownAsscher, Maarten
doi: 10.1007/BF02680398pmid: N/A
Authors who write in little-known languages, or who are at the beginning of their careers, have difficulty in finding an international audience. Their problems include the inability of editors to evaluate untranslated work, the absence of foreign publishers' agents and scouts in small countries, the inability of foreign publishers to place a new work in its national context, lack of interest among readers in some countries in foreign literature, and the dearth of foreign rights managers in the publishing houses of small countries.
Public policy and literary culture: Publishing subsidies in ScotlandMcGowan, Ian
doi: 10.1007/BF02680399pmid: N/A
Public subsidies of publishing have a number of goals, including the extension of both international cultural activities and national cultural enterprise. The Scottish publishing industry is described and its recent history is reviewed. The activities of the publishing subsidy program of the Scottish Arts Council are enumerated. Finally, the impact of subsidies on Scottish authors and publishers is evaluated.
Faculty perceptions of the scholarship and utility of writing college-level textbooksArnold, David
doi: 10.1007/BF02680400pmid: N/A
The literature and most anecdotal evidence suggest that higher education faculty members hold writing college-level textbooks in relatively low esteem as a scholarly activity. A structured inquiry conducted among tenured faculty and department chairs which separated notions of scholarship from expectation of utility disclosed a surprisingly high regard for the scholarship required in writing textbooks. However, the expectation of utility or reward is much lower, suggesting institutional and financial pressures that act as major disincentives to textbook authorship. Both the regard for scholarship and the expectation of reward were also shown to display disciplinary variations.
Of cultures and compromises: Publishers, textbooks, and the academyHeilenman, L.
doi: 10.1007/BF02680401pmid: N/A
Relationships between professors as textbook authors and publishing houses as textbook producers have always been fragile. L. Kathy Heilenman examines this relationship and describes how current changes in the climate of universities and in the structure of publishing houses have converged to render this relationship more than usaually problematic. She concludes with suggestions for restructuring the relationship so as to encourage the production of high-quality, innovative textbooks in a partnership between publishers and professors.