[Professorial Lecture series post six]
Unlike all previous Internet communication tools, the Web allowed librarians to become independent publishers of the very resources which are changing how information and knowledge is distributed. The Web provided an opportunity to investigate and develop new techniques for teaching, research, publication, and participation in professional service activities.
World Wide Web (flickr.com/photos/bull3t)
Scholarly communities first began using the web to sustain existing models of communication by creating web-based e-journals. An examination of electronic library journals available using the Web in the early 1990’s reviewed that hypertext and multimedia capabilities were not fully utilized. None of the electronic library journals I surveyed in the early 90’s accepted HTML Web documents. Electronic publications requested that manuscripts be sent in plain ASCII text format. Since ASCII eliminates the use of charts, graphs, and images, the resulting Web documents are pure text, lacking even the look and feel of traditional print publications.
The challenge of how online publications were transforming scholarly communications became a hot topic in the traditional literature, with individuals like Clifford Lynch commenting:
“We should recognize that not all these potentials are likely to be attractive to those accustomed to, and comfortable with, a system of scholarly communication based upon refereed print journal”
Still, the availability of hyperlinks to related resources offered academics new ways of working in research and new kinds of academic output. Internet resources referenced in Web documents can be updated as the resources move, change names, or are deleted. Works in progress can be made available for colleagues to comment on content and structure. One of the first groups to take advantage of the flexibility of the technology in their scholarly communication were high energy physicists. The web site xxx.lanl.gov, then hosted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was groundbreaking at the time and today remains a model for oen scholarlship.
In 1995, I started “Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians,” an electronic publication which was been well received by the library community. I continuously updated the content, adding new sections over a period of 10 years. This publication not only provided me with a sandbox to experiment with the latest techniques of Web site development. The document itself demonstrated many of the principles I discussed in the document’s navigation, layout, and overall presentation.
Since the Primer was self-published and did not go through a pre-publication peer-review I had to create my own quality indicators to demonstrate the impact for my promotion and tenure review. The review process at the time required that I provided a hard copy of list of sites linking to it at that time including Library of Congress, National Library of Medicine, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, American Library Association, Special Library Association, Medical Library Association, and IFLA. I printed off comments and suggestions that I received comments as well as feedback from library peers from all over the world on its value. I printed off syllabi from where it was being used as required reading or as a reference resource.
Even with all the documentation as to the impact, the tenure and promotion committee commented:
“The academic or scholarly value of a website publication or resource which is heavily used … remains problematic if examined under the light of traditional research and publication criteria”
A new dilemma became how to does a scholar document and communicate the value on a web publication when very often traditional research and publication criteria cannot be applied. A printed version of “Writing for the Web” , which is how I was asked to submit the work for review, lacks all the dynamics elements which make it a useful publication. As a result, an external reviewer reviewing a Web document sent in print form is not reviewing the publication in its native form. It was like requiring a dancer to submit a series of still photos depicting a dance recital, but not a video.
So, even as I explored the emerging forms of scholarship and the dilemma on how they should be assessed, I hedged my bets and authored traditional papers that complemented by web publications. However, a discussion around my online publications and the other web-based scholarship being explored by Libraries colleagues was occurring and did have an impact. The University Libraries tenure and promotion criteria was changed in 2001 by the faculty body to acknowledge such works:
“In the University Libraries, scholarship usually takes the form of a publication, but it can also be evidenced in other ways, e.g., exhibits, public performances, digital resources, papers at professional meetings, etc.”