*This post is from Abby Scheel, one of our three humanities librarians.
A couple weeks ago I was fortunate enough to represent FSU Libraries at two meetings near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. Both meetings dealt in different ways with one of the most contested issues for academic libraries and scholars: the scholarly monograph. There is so much to share from both meetings that I’m going to break this report-back into two parts. Today is the Association of Research Libraries Fall Forum: Wanted Dead or Alive – The Scholarly Monograph.
The ARL Fall Forum addressed the future of the book directly and with maximum controversy (see title above). Based on a title like that you might think this is yet another session extolling the demise of the book and the dawn of the age of all things digital. Yes and no. The scholarly monograph is still king in humanities disciplines because of its connection with promotion and tenure. But it’s time to stop privileging the monograph published in print by an academic press over other means of disseminating the “long-form argument.” How to and why do this? What are the ramifications of this move? This was what the presenters all addressed during the daylong forum that included points of view from all sides of the issue, from faculty, librarians, and publishers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Here are a few of the highlights of the day in my own words: Continue reading The Contested Future of the Book, Part 1