Quote:
Originally Posted by desertblues
I feel it will be a long time before digital readers and their content can be used in academic research, exept perhaps for an global orientation on the subject. And also, not all can be, or should be digitalized.
In writing up my research I am glad I don't have to use annotations of an academic e-book. I mean: what is the standard? Will I be able to use those annotations or search in other places in that particular e-book in about 40 years from now? And on which device and in which format? And how will other people check my quotations and annotations in the meantime?
Literature in my field is not so popular that there are many editions of it, so references are clear, most of the time. As for the rest: I have to find most of my material in archives, where they are kept under lock and key and good conditions, accessible if you know where to look. But all of that is not digitalized, so it is a lot of legwork.
And also, sometimes, the typographical aspect of a book or paper is important to me. I don't know in advance which, and I wouldn't like some else, who digitalizes all that, to make that decision for me.
I still have a lot of reservations on the subject of Kindle+ academics and am rather intrigued if and when they'll going to use it.  |
Oh, by all means I agree with you. The citation issues you brought up are a big reason why I think things are going to take a while. I actually only rarely had some of the problems you (and I) talked about like editions, formats, etc., but I've seen such problems. In my field (earthquake engineering), things were so new that we actually relied on journals and conference papers, which are actually quite simple to reference no matter the format paper or pdf because one never has to note a specific page or location. Electronic copies are just as common in those items.
However, those electronic copies that are out there bring up an item that will only be a bigger problem and that is the longevity of a source. This has become a problem with conference proceedings that are becoming more electronic, yet their location is never consistent. Right now it is a matter of internet addresses, but the same type of thing will come up with e-readers and whether they still exist or not in 5, 20, or 100 years.
Technology is a challenge across the board. It moves faster than the standards ever bother to keep up with.