I cannot speak to the state of thought in research libraries, but I
would say that many of the scholars whom we serve operate under
constraints that are worth noting: field excavations, under-privileged
institutions with poor, slow, expensive internet connections, 6-hour
delays in airports with no wireless, etc. When we asked papyrologists
for input on our plans to extend he DDBDP ("What would your ideal DDBDP
look like?"), a great many expressed a wish to be able to access it via
both web and CD. We have been exploring the idea of serving up the
DDBDP both online (as we do) and in a downloadable self-contained
package that users could burn to CD, mount on their computer, whatever.
This isn't *really the subject of this thread, but I think we should
keep this other dimension in mind, if only because we ought not in our
discussion of financial and institutional exigencies to lose sight (and
I am not suggesting that we are here) of what we as scholars want.
Josh Sosin
> I was forwarded not long ago an email exchange between a director of a
> digital lexicography project and a librarian. The former enquired
> whether the library could purchase a lexicon on CD-ROM. The
> librarian’s answer was that the acquisitions department strongly
> disencouraged the purchase of CD-ROMs. Some of the arguments put
> forward included:
> - public machines are too locked-down for loading new software
> - there is a very high rate of theft in relations to CD-ROMs
> - whenever there is an on-line alternative, the latter should be
> preferred
> - major publishers are moving away from publishing on CD-ROM.
>
> While I do find some arguments persuasive and others not so, it truly
> begs the question: are CD-ROMs (and, I suppose, the same goes for
> DVD-ROMs) still a desirable medium for ditigal publication?
>
> I would appreciate your feedback on this.
>
> Best
>
> Juan
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> Dr Juan Garcés
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
> Kay House, 7 Arundel Street
> London WC2R 3DX
> T: +44 (0)20 7848 1393
> F: +44 (0)20 7848 2980
>
>
-- -- --
Harrington Fellow, Classics, UT Austin, AY 05/06
Assistant Professor, Classical Studies, Duke University
Assistant Editor, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
Co-Director, Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri
www.duke.edu/~jds15
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