Klarinet Archive - Posting 000102.txt from 2009/11

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Bellison Ensemble (and a reply to Fred)
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:37:37 -0500

Oliver Seely wrote:
> I fear that libraries are going to become more sophisticated (and
> proprietary) about the works they hold. That is bound to slow down the
> democratization of knowledge, starting way back with Aldus Menutius who
> invented italic and the pocket book.

Well, some of them will, but there will be a backlash (similar to the
one taking place now against scientific publishers) along the lines of,
'Hang on, who funds all this storage of knowledge? So how come we can't
get hold of it??!!'

I think enlightened libraries will realise that they can gain a lot of
kudos (and worldwide attention) by creating good web services that make
scans of their important documents freely available. The pioneers will
probably capture the online 'scholarly archive' audience/community in
the same way that a site like YouTube has captured the community for
viral videos. Then when they see the results, all the others will be
stumbling over themselves to join the party ...

It just doesn't make sense any more for key reference works to be locked
up in this way. I was delighted to see the Neue Mozart Ausgabe made
freely-available online, but it doesn't go far enough; with today's
technology it makes much more sense for such projects to be collective
scholarly efforts whose results are freely available for anyone to use,
rather than the restricted product of a single private publisher.

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