ASEE ELD
1995 Conference Summary

Electronic Publishing


Wednesday June 28, 1995. 8:30 - 10:15 am
Moderator: Jay Waddell
Notes by Jill Powell (jhp1@cornell.edu)

Jay Waddell mentioned that some 20 electronic peer-reviewed journals exist today and posed several questions for speakers to answer, including How do technical libraries deploy this new medium? What will happen in the near future with electronic publishing?

Jump to:
Publishing for Engineering Education - Today and Tomorrow
Network Access to Full-text IEEE and IEEE Publications
Establishing Criteria for Peer Reviewed Engineering Instructional Courseware

Publishing for Engineering Education - Today and Tomorrow

Wayne Anderson, John Wiley Publishers (wanderso@jwiley.com)

Our publishing environment is in transition. We are moving from an era when our intellectual properties are stored in atomic structures--ink on paper to an era when such properties are stored as electronic impulses. Weare moving from a Pre-digital to a Digital environment with the following comparisons:

Pre-Digital Digital
Atoms bits
Books, records, tapes CDs, electronic files
static dynamic
ownership access
transfer physically transfer electronically
transfer slowly transfer immediately
local transactions global transactions
sell license
buying subscribing
physical space computer memory
updating slowly updating/correcting quickly
media do not mix well media mixes well
can't compress can compress
create and disseminate create and serve

Traditional Role of Publisher
Pre-digital Digital
Define publishing mission Role stays the same
create content or select creator Role stays the same
help focus content to meet need Role stays the same
get peer reviews Role stays the same
package into defined product provide access
sell license
inventory books maintain files
collect revenues and pay royalties same

Challenges:

What is Wiley doing to address challenges? YAIFS - yet another information format. It's scary that the format is sometimes more important than the information itself.

Wiley's Experiments:

Wiley, like other publishers is undertaking a number of experiments to determine ways of making a profit in the new digital world.

Network Access to Full-text IEEE and IEEE Publications at the University of British Columbia

Bonita Stableford, University of British Columbia (bstford@unixg.ubc.ca)

Presents story of how Univ. of British Columbia came to get network access to the full-text IEEE Proquest service. The network version is a closed test project, comprised of the following: Boeing (Seattle), Hewlett Packard Library, US Patents Office, and University of British Columbia.

Sees shift of use from print to electronic resources where available. Patrons like to find information without taking a step. Received a trial of full-text IEEE Proquest Service from UMI. Patrons delighted and asked when it would be networked and available from their offices. IEE and IEEE initially slow to agree.

3 levels of pricing

  1. IEEE All-Society periodicals package -- partial discount
    all parts of IEEE Proquest and Electronics Letters

  2. as above plus one -- maximum discount
    IEEE Conference Prepaid Order Plan or IEEE Conference standing order plan

  3. No IEE or IEEE publications -- full price
Drawbacks:
3rd party fixes hardware and software but liability of injury, theft not covered and has been a problem in negotiations.

Inability to install debit cards, so users are printing for free (libraries are paying a per page charge in addition to subscription price).

The problem is UMI can't guarantee users aren't paying for other users' print jobs on the network. While IPO standalone can see final pages, the network version can't. Users do miss this.

Funding - 25% faculty, 75% library. For period Nov 94-June 95, 85,000 pages have been printed. 31,000 printed in EE department, 48,000 at the library, and rest at a computer lab.

UMI will not be will not supporting IPO after Fec. 96. All new customers are being referred to IEE/IEEE offices for their new Windows based product call IEL, the IEE/IEEE Electronic Library. It will be available in a standalone version only.

Establishing Criteria for Peer Reviewed Engineering Instructional Courseware

Professor Pamela Ann Eibeck, Mechanical Engineering, Northern Arizona University, Chief editor for NEEDS database (pae@pine.cse.nau.edu)

What is NEEDS?
NEEDS is a database of instructional materials put together by the Synthesis Coalition. It is expanding to include contributions from anywhere.
What is on NEEDS? Why Peer Review? What is Quality Courseware?
Speaker provided a few references.
Suggested Criteria
Content, engagement, user interface, diversity of examples, designappealing, easy to use consistent features, makes user active.
Comments
Few authors will meet all the criteria! Most reviewers are not qualified to review courseware.
Result - Three Tiered Review
  1. Nonreviewed material - verify only how it works. This level fosters creativity
  2. Endorsed courseware - peer review by gestalt questionnaire. Criteria: content errror-free, aethetically appealing, complete, author documentation available, potentially useful to another instructor
  3. Premier courseware - unique state-of-the art, measurable increase in students understanding relative to traditional lecture. Only 1 or 2 per year. Author must include learning assessment, student comments, detailed recommendation or pedagogical application.
For more information, contact NEEDS project manager:
Brandon Muramatsu
mura@euher.berkeley.edu
510-642-8708
Will distribute software via CD-ROM, since takes so long to download huge files. Have non-exclusive rights to distribute.
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rev. 8/22/95