electronic journals

From
Date
Henry Gee has touched upon a point which still bothers me quite a bit about
electronic publishinging.  However, as Norm MacLeod rightly points out, the
computer is here to stay.  I just hope nothing gets lost along the way.

Gee has noted that in our profession, paleontology, we often make use of
sources as far back as the 17th century.  I need no technology to open a book
printed in 1690, and read it.  Yet I keep on my desk a 5.25 in (13cm) floppy
disc, only a decade or so old, as a constant warning.  Why, you ask?  Because
I can no longer read what is on that disc.

I originally wrote some files on that disc using X computer with Y software.
The software got upgraded to Y.1, then Y.2, then Y.3 ... each time I had
to consciously make the decision as to which files to convert up.  Then I 
switched to computer Z with software Q.  Guess what?  Software Q got upgraded
to Q.1, Q.2, Q.3 ... each time the files had to be converted up.  Along the
way the 13cm discs kept getting higher and higher density, then the discs
themselves shrank to 9cm, and kept getting higher and higher density.

Now, on computer G, I no longer even have a drive which will accept the
13cm disc.  I no longer have a copy of software which will convert the
original Y format in which the files are written.  The files are not
important, but I keep the disc as a warning to myself anyway, and that is
is easier to read a book from 1690 than this disc written in 1985.

Libraries will no doubt keep copies of paleontology journals on CD-ROM
for future use, but at the pace of technological change, who will pay for
the continual upgrades in those original CDs to assure that they can still
be read?  And what if a library forgets to upgrade journal X?  Or worse,
what if a library decides not to upgrade journal X?

I am certain these questions will eventually be addressed in electronic
publishing, and I for one am not going back to the old pre-computer days
of typewriters and rapidographs, yet these questions disturb me none the
less.

George McGhee
Department of Geological Sciences
Wright/Rieman Laboratories
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903 USA
mcghee@rci.rutgers.edu