The History Librarian

Two quotes from the same article:

“Academic institutions must now become the quality controllers of the information superhighway.  They can do this by publishing the work of scholars they respect on their servers and encouraging independent mines of information to seek their accredited approval.  This will never be a guarantee of absolute quality, nor is it to suggest that the only good work would be on university sites, but it would at least give surfers some guide to veracity and suitability, not unlike relying on your doctor to recommend drugs.”

“I am far too sentimental and old-fashioned to welcome the abolition of the book, but like many students I am also thrifty; if you offer me the best material for free, I’m unlikely to buy a hardback copy for sixty quid.  As most academics are foolish enough rarely to write for money, they would do well to start publishing their work for free on university maintained websites rather than in expensive editions limited to miniscule print runs.”

– Alex Burghart, “Web works,” Times Literary Supplement, (October 13, 2006): 17.  This was one of the articles in the “New Ways in History: 40 Years On” group.