I am sorry to have to say this, but why do people assume that because a book is in electronic format it should be free? I find it very strange than even those familiar with the work that goes into electronic publications would suggest that it should be free of charge. The site about Open Access referred to by Klaus is clearly intended for journals and similar publications, not for works as the Exeter CD. Indeed, I cannot imagine approaching Andy Orchard, for example, and saying, "I always wanted to buy _Pride and Prodigies_, but it is too expensive, could I have it for free?" This is the kind of publication we are talking about, not articles in journals; but incredibly complex publications that, more often than not, require the cooperation of a team of people. Those who think that publishing on the internet is free should take into account costs such as maintenance and upgrading. Someone has to care for the texts on the internet for these to remain available. In some cases, without university support, a private individual will even have to pay for the space on the internet. Of course we all want more access to primary materials and libraries are doing a good job digitizing their books, making them available and maintaining the sites. We should be happy that we can count on this and stop trying to get everything for free.
Best,
Barbara Bordalejo
----- Original Message ----- From: Klaus Graf klaus.graf@geschichte.uni-freiburg.de Date: Monday, July 19, 2004 4:20 pm Subject: [dm-l] Re: Exeter Book CD
Digital Medievalist Journal (Inaugural Issue Fall 2004). Call for papers: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/cfp.htm
In my opinion an Open Acess web page with the digitized Exter book in reasonable quality would be better than any CD.
Klaus Graf
PS: What is Open Access: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm
Project web site: http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/ dm-l mailing list dm-l@uleth.ca http://listserv.uleth.ca/mailman/listinfo/dm-l