The publishing house and the library

Scientific knowledge is circulated through readers and authors. Libraries served the first, publishers the second. It was that way for centuries, but will it remain so after 1991, the year of the birth of the World Wide Web?

The ones who, without a doubt, have gotten away with the best in the digital revolution of academic publishing are the great classic publishers. Over the past decades, they have steered their companies through sometimes turbulent waters, with income increasing annually and maintaining generous profit margins. They were able to digitize the business processes without having to change their essence. Open science can herald a new heyday for them. Are we heading for an oligopoly?

Libraries have suffered damage. Their core functions have virtually disappeared, except at the cultural heritage libraries. Only management of study rooms, information provision and contract management have remained. However, their future will depend on the ability to collectively build a global knowledge network, based on their repositories, treasure troves of publications and research data. But then they have to be integrated into a larger whole, both organizationally and technically. Is that going to work?

Institutions that feel responsible not only for their research, but also for the way in which the results find their way to society cannot ignore these questions.