on Fri, 11 Aug 2000 Stevan Harnad <[email protected]> wrote:
> Al Henderson simply keeps repeating the Gutenberg formula, in which
> both the non-give-away and the give-away literature had to be treated
> in exactly the same non-give-away way, even though we are now in the
> PostGutenberg Galaxy, where this is no longer true. For Al Henderson,
> nothing has changed (except that the libraries are under-funded!)...
With all due respect to the late J. Gutenberg, I think
that you give him too much credit. As a publisher he
demonstrated how to go bust, publishing the Holy Bible
at a time when all copying was done by hand. The behavior
patterns of authors, publishers, libraries and readers
evolved for the most part without the benefit of a
activist bureaucracy and utopian visions of free information.
The trouble with activist bureaucracies, as Max Weber
pointed out, is that administrative solutions tend to
favor the administrators rather than those they serve.
That is why, by the way, administrative spending
takes an ever-larger share in academe while spending on
libraries and instruction falls. Eventually, the people
will figure this out and demand an adjustment -- as
they did following Sputnik.
Albert Henderson
Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000
<[email protected]>
.
.
.
.
