> I think it's awfully easy to start thinking of these issues in terms of a
> contest between print and electronic publications. That's a sure lose;
> they aren't really the same thing, and we're all going to end up arguing
> for the medium we like best--and likely the one that published the most of
> our work. Better, I think, to emphasize the differences in a way that
> portrays the two as complementary in some cases, and just plain two
> different things in other cases.
When I first read this, I said to myself "yeah, that's true, Tari's
right." But when I thought about it for a second, I'm not so sure. Part
of me agrees and wants to sympathize with the point she's making, but the
fact of the matter is we _are_ comparing the two when we dwell on such
issues as access and readability, and, much more important, when we think
about what electronic publishing "means" in terms of tenure, etc.
So if we're going to stick to the "these two mediums aren't all that
comparable," then I think we should be dwelling on the presumed academic
rewards that comes with academic publishing. There's a lot of good that
comes from electronic publishing, but maybe tenure is not one of them. On
the other hand, if we want our electronic publications to be academically
rewarded (jobs, tenure, promotion, etc.), then we do need to make some
comparisons and/or be trying to change the definition of what "counts" on
a CV.
Of course, we could just get rid of tenure too. ;)
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Steve Krause * Department of English * Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH * 43403 * (419) 372-8934 *skrause@bgnet.bgsu.edu
*Soon to be at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland, OR*
*http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~skrause/Steve.html*
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