Open access monographs

[Sean Cubitt <scubitt AT unimelb.edu.au>]

Dear Colleagues

A coup,e of swift thoughts, as I have deadlines to chase this weekend

1. there are numbers of books which go out of print every year. Standard
contracts seem in general to revert rights to authors. Republishing
significant lost humanities titles, especially those whose specialism or
timeliness militates against republication might eb a significant activity
to broker. If scanned, such texts require a lot less production.

2. I presume Mark davis is on this list - mark's department and no doubt
others across the world produce highly skilled professionals for the
publishing industry. There might be a possibility of creating a pedagogical
link to the mutual benefit of both parties

3. In my current research I keep coming up on 1960s and 70s specialist
monographs published in what appears to be xerox or photolitho, especially
in history and phlosophy of science. Unless a learned society has a
monographs arm titles like 'The History of Colorimetry and Sensitometry' are
not going to have a commercial life, but as in that case, sean F Johnston's
book is the making of mine. I suppose my contention is really this

Whiuch monographs most benefit from digital publishing?
- those which have already exhausted their commercial potential
- those which have no commercial potential
- those which are urgently attached to the present - such titles might be
revised for hardcopy publication, so might be considered pre=press, on the
scientific model

There may also be a category for which hyperlinking is of value, or the
cheapness of colour reproduction

My apologies if this is all material you've have talked through already, and
thanks for inviting me to participate

Sean



Prof Sean Cubitt
scubitt AT unimelb.edu.au
Director
Media and Communications Program
Faculty of Arts
Room 127 John Medley East
The University of Melbourne
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Australia

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