April 26, 2004

Publications

New book explores issues facing academic libraries

Wei Wei, computer science librarian at UCSC's Science & Engineering Library, is the editor of a new book, Scholarly Communication in Science and Engineering Research.

The book discusses recent technological innovations that can meet the needs of researchers who need to stay on the cutting edge of science and technology and of scholars who must be published and peer-reviewed in order to achieve tenure and promotion. In several chapters, experts in the academic community propose cost-effective alternatives to commercial publications in the face of increased journal prices and reduced budgets. The book also examines the latest developments in information retrieval that will effectively cut time and costs for academic researchers in the library.

Much of the book focuses on the need for the academic community to accept new economical methods of producing and making available publications such as peer reviews, research papers, letters, technical and experiment reports, preprints, and conference papers. The book also emphasizes that scientists and engineers--whether graduate students or professionals--must have access to the latest relevant research in their fields and rely on libraries to provide it. Several chapters examine the problem areas of information technology that need to be fixed, such as bottlenecks in the flow of information, difficulties using information-retrieval systems, and the challenges with archiving electronic journals.

Wei said the book will be helpful for librarians, science and engineering faculty and students, researchers, and publishers.

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