Scholarly Communication - Historical Development and New Possibilities
Nancy Fjällbrant · Purdue e-Pubs (Purdue University System) · 2012
Today we are at the threshold of the greatest change in scholarly communication and knowledge transfer that the world has ever seen (even including Gutenberg and the printing press).Developments in computer technology -cheaper processors and memory devices -provide the means for the production and storage of ideas, thoughts, research and experiments in digital form.When this is combined with the possibility for rapid global transfer by means of high capacity networks we can begin to envision a virtual global knowledge society.It is, therefore, appropriate to examine the phenomenon of scholarly communication in order to see which factors will promote change and the forces that will be in opposition to this.This 1997 IATUL Conference in Trondheim with its theme of Scholarly Communication in Focus will allow us to study the trends in electronic publishing and how this will affect the users of this literature and the libraries which manage information resources.