Old College, The University of Edinburgh
March 20th - 23rd 2002
The electronic revolution of the last decade has transformed the nature
and the potential of the public collection. It is now possible to envisage
libraries, museums and art galleries which are accessible, in part or
in whole, online. The publishing industry is in a state of turmoil as
it makes the transition to electronic dissemination of its products; scholarly
research has been revolutionised by the resources of the internet including
online publishing, email, scholarly lists, and the formation of new databases.
E-commerce is in the process of transforming the retail book trade. What,
in this context, is the future of the archive?
Bringing together librarians, curators, archivists, publishers, booksellers
and academics, the conference sought to address some of the central issues
that arise from the rapidly forming new information order:
- What pressures exist on the public domain in intellectual and aesthetic
materials? To what extent does the privatisation of intellectual resources
threaten their free availability?
- What new forms of licensing and networking are emerging in the
transition to the electronic archive? What ethical questions are involved
in the ceding of content to electronic publishers?
- What threats are posed by the emerging oligopolies in scholarly
publishing, and how can they be met?
- What are the legal implications of the electronic archiving of
newspapers and journals? Can a new framework for deposit of electronic
materials be devised?
- What new possibilities of access are opened up by the development
of electronic archives and databases, and what constraints exist on
access?
- How is the relation between originals and copies changing in the
new order of things? Which materials are reproducible, which are not,
and who decides?
- What futures, both technological and social, are emerging for the book and the artwork? What is the future of the bookshop in an electronic world?
Plenary speakers:
The Shepherd & Wedderburn Lecture:
James Boyle, Professor of Law, Duke University
Tom Hickerson, Associate Librarian, Cornell University
Paul Mosher, Director of Libraries, University of Pennsylvania
Clive Field, Director of Scholarship and Collections, British Library
Paul Ayris, Chair, Consortium of University Research Libraries
Task Force on Scholarly Communications
Michael Mabe, Director of Academic Relations, Elsevier Science
Matthew Evans, Faber and Resource
Josie Dixon, Palgrave
Bruce Royan, SCRAN
Richard Paterson, Head of Knowledge, British Film Institute
Manfredi La Manna, Reader in Economics, University of St. Andrews
Steven Harnad, Professor of Cognitive Science, University of Southampton
Frederick Friend, Director Scholarly Communication, University College London
Michael Ashburner, Professor of Genetics, University of
Cambridge; Public Library of Science
Gaetano Stucchi, European Broadcasting Union
Further information from:
Professor John Frow
Director
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
The University of Edinburgh
Hope Park Square
Edinburgh EH8 9NW
Scotland
Tel: 0131 650 4671
Fax: 0131 668 2252
Email: iash@ed.ac.uk
