Book People Archive

Re: E-Book Saga Is Full of Woe--and a Bit of Intrigue

grant p cunningham wrote:

> >
> > It seems like the media really doesn't get it when it comes
> > to free information. They think free information just means
> > hacking and Napster. Sigh.
> >
>
> The media also equates free and bad.  A book cannot be good if it is free.
> Sigh.
>

In the world of academia, this is especially true in the view of the
administration.

I had to retire as a professor before I could do the sort of work I find truly
valuable...i.e. working with Tony Kline to put a translation of the famous Don
Juan play online. I know this will be invaluable to students who used to have to
pay an exhorbitant price for an anthology of Don Juan plays. They only had to
read one. And the book is out of print now anyway.

Not only is a "free" book considered unacademic, a translation is also
considered somewhat suspect in the professorial world. Not "real" research.

I can imagine how frightened the professoriat was on hearing about the amount of
"free" info available online. I now direct inquiries re: how to learn Spanish to
the internet. There are marvelous programs that include sound, pronunciation,
self grading tests,  grammar rules etc. I even know of a case where a language
laboratory has shut down as computer generated programs replace their function.
There is an old saying that changing a university is like moving a cemetary. I
wish more professors were aware of how technology is changing their fields of
research.

Nancy Mayberry