Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501310116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: IAN ZACK THE DAILY PROGRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) LENGTH: Medium
At $35 a copy, maybe 1,000 of the historical resource guides were printed by the University of Virginia's academic press in 1990 and sold to libraries and historical societies.
But now the book, a possible treasure trove for amateur genealogists and students of black history, has a new life and a unique distinction: It is the first book by an American academic press to be published on the Internet worldwide computer network.
``We need to make a major shift, from just publishing books to conveying information,'' said Nancy Essig, director of the University Press of Virginia. ``The role of the presses is dissemination of knowledge and scholarship and this is part of its future.''
Surfers on the ``information superhighway'' from Tallahassee and Tokyo to Tel Aviv can research black history by downloading the book - for free - from the Internet, according to David Seaman, director of the university library's Electronic Text Center.
The book by Michael Plunkett, the library's director of special collections, describes in detail the African-American history holdings of the 26 institutional collections in Virginia.
In the mid-19th century, Virginia had the nation's largest black population.
The collections, in libraries, colleges and museums throughout the state, range from early plantation records and diaries to letters and minutes of modern-day civil rights movement meetings.
One of the most important aspects of the electronic book from a research perspective is that Internet users can rapidly search subjects, historical periods or family names by typing a key word, Essig said. And the ``book'' could eventually be expanded by linking it with collections in other states.
Technology is clearly changing the academic publishing business, Essig said. Some scholarly journals are already published on-line. University presses are selling books on CD-ROM and other software versions.
``There will always be books, but there is a certain type of information that is going to be conveyed electronically,'' Essig said.
On-line books also raise questions such as how the university presses will be paid for their publishing efforts.
Most of the more than 80 academic presses in the country are not-for-profit agencies that survive mostly on book sales, say Essig and the Association of American University Presses.
Essig said the University of Virginia's press has sales of about $1.5 million per year and ``we spend that.''
Peter Grenquist, executive director of the Association of American University Presses in New York, said that Virginia's experiment in offering a book on Internet for free may be only an experiment. User fees - similar to those paid by patrons of pay-per-view movies on cable television - may be the solution for compensating university presses for their work.
``It would have to be understood that you would have to have a ... personal identification number or credit card number'' to download a book, he said. ``I think the technology will rise to meet the challenge.''
Another issue that might arise from electronic publishing in academia is how to decide tenure. Many schools base guaranteed employment and salaries in part on a scholar's ability to publish.
Grenquist said the idea of being ``published'' until now has referred to ``conventional book form.'' That notion will have to be changed, ``as part of a redefined tenure process,'' he said.
by CNB