From Print to Electronic [Review]

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Summer 1997  


	DOI:10.5062/F49Z92WF


      

Book Reviews
    Judy Matthews
  Physics-Astronomy Library
  Michigan State University

  

From Print to Electronic: The Transformation of Scientific Communication.  Susan Y. Crawford, Julie M. Hurd, and Ann C. Weller.  Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 1996. 117 p. hardbound. $39.50. (ISBN 1-57387-030-7).  
    This slim but substantive volume of six essays on scientific communication  is the collaborative brainchild of three authors whose biographies reflect  their impressive credentials as librarians and scholars of information  delivery. The mission of this work is an evaluation of the extent and  nature of technology's impact on traditional scientific communication,  both formal and informal. The traditional Garvey/Griffith communication  model of over thirty years ago analyzed the specific discipline of  psychology, and mapped the steps in the scientific communication process  from the beginnings of a project through the dissemination of results.  Here the authors revisit that model and explore the impact of the digital  world on the dispersion of scientific information and how "computer-based  technologies can both enhance and alter the communications system."    Crawford's introductory chapter on scientific communication and the growth  of big (and increasingly bigger) science gives an overview of the role  of scientific research and its impact on American society from the late  nineteenth century through the present. Hurd follows with a discussion of  the old Garvey/Griffith model, a look at the Internet as a change-agent,  and at other venues of communication - formal (scientific journals)  informal (personal discussion), meetings and conferences, as well as a  variety of other communication paradigms, including a modernized  Garvey/Griffith model. Three research areas - the Human Genome Project,  high energy physics, and the space sciences - are examined in separate  chapters as models of current scientific information dissemination. The  shift from print publishing to electronic and its ramifications for speed  of transmission, peer review, and publication on these areas and on  scientific publication as a whole are explored. There is also a discussion  of electronic journals, standards (SGML), issues of publishing economics,  and the role of informational professionals.

    The electronic era has heralded myriad changes in the way scientists  communicate, and raised many as-yet unanswerable questions and issues about  the future. That many of the values and functions of the scientific  community will remain unchanged despite emerging technologies seems to be  one conclusion of this text. (It is interesting to note that this book was  inspired by an in-person discussion by the authors at a scientific meeting,  oral communication remaining one mainstay venue of information transfer  even in the electronic age.) Hurd cites Clifford Lynch's differentiation  between modernization of scientific communication, i.e. using new  technologies to do the same thing, and transformation, i.e., using new  technologies to change processes in a fundamental and profound way. At  present there is more evidence for the former, but the future may hold  astonishing surprises. At least with today's rapid, networked electronic  communication we could not replicate Garvey and Griffith's finding that  nearly ten years pass before research findings begin to appear in textbooks  and encyclopedias as accepted knowledge.

    The world wide web has had a dramatic impact on scientific communication,  particularly where electronic journals are concerned. Some mention is  given - author Julie Hurd includes a brief discussion in her essay on  models of scientific information, for example - but coverage is not  sufficient to warrant inclusion of the web as a separate subject heading in  the index. A focused examination of the unique contributions of the  nascent web - just four years old - as a revolutionary mechanism of  information delivery would be very interesting in a future edition.

    This volume would be excellent required reading for anyone wishing to  comprehend the specialized world of scientific literature and  communication. Certainly it is a must-read for the scientist and science  librarian, for whom it is vital to stay on top of the changing issues and  models of information delivery in the fast-paced disciplines of science.