Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1103090821470.12710@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Peter Timusk <ptimusk@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Re: [Air-L] book announcement
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 08:22:15 -0500 (EST)
Just want to note that the university libraries here, that I'm familiar with, are not open to public borrowing and most aren't open to public browsing either. - Alan On Wed, 9 Mar 2011, Peter Timusk wrote: > My two cents worth or deux cent ( 200) > > I guess part of being successful as an undergrad is being resourceful vis a > vie books. I still bought every course book expect professor prepared essay > collections when I was an undergrad. The essay collections I researched and > found in the library. > > What's wrong with using a university library as our universities here allow > the general public some borrowing rights? Two books that Barry Wellman > posted titles of I found at the local U libraries. Of course, this doesn?t > solve the developing world access and may be the developing world should pay > attention less to the developed world's research agenda. And here the > general public has a hard time getting online journal access from the U > libraries. > > One of my professors has this site on her web page http://www.addall.com for > buying text books which will search for the cheapest price including > shipping. This may put the university book stores out of business eh? > > Going on the basis of one large multi volume set on Research Ethics I > borrowed a volume of from school, I would say the size was off putting. May > be I can not cope with large books unless they are photo coffee table books. > Volume of this size in my use are used for one chapter or less, or as a > reference like some Oxford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy where I read the > entry on computer ethics and put the book back on the reference shelf. I > don't buy these reference books generally for personal use. I also have seen > professors buying on amazon and they explain to me that they spend their > grant money buying books. So yes being in a position of money is different. > > Now the Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics ed Luciano > Floridi, I am borrowing and reading slowly and it is not a big book and > Charles Ess is coauthor of a chapter I have read already. The cost is about > 36.87$ CND for paperback on Amazon.ca. This is typical for a social sciences > book (IMHE) but up about 10$ from 25 years ago I would guess. I like this > book. > > In my math courses the books, and these are textbooks students are expected > to buy in each course, run in the 80$ to 160$ range. Law books run at 25$ to > 45$ for criminal codes and then 60$ or so for case analysis or annotated > criminal code books in basic undergrad courses. I think in advanced law you > would be paying more. > > Anyways thanks for reading and I hope this helps the discussion. I am going > back this morning to learning Gplot in SAS for my nine to five job from the > huge collection of published online for free SAS conference proceedings. > Although the cheapest SAS publishing book in Kindle Edition is about 38$. > > Peter Timusk > at571@ncf.ca > ptimusk@sympatico.ca > web: www.crystalcomputing.net > blogs www.cyborgcitizen.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org > [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess > Sent: March-09-11 1:58 AM > To: Nathaniel Poor > Cc: Air list > Subject: Re: [Air-L] book announcement > > Hi Nat, > yeah, unhappy that - also happened with our AoIR friends and colleagues > Lisbeth Klastrup, Jeremy Hunsinger, and Matthew Allen, whose _International > Handbook of Internet Research_ now lists at $260.00 on Amazon, with a > discount down to 213.20. > Clearly, very few researchers, much less students will buy either of these > in the hardcover. So far as I can tell, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and > others are following what seems to be a standard practice of trying to get > maximum return on a first hardcover printing that mostly libraries will buy > up; they will then make available a softcover edition at a lower price. > > (Interestingly, Peter Lang - including the Digital Formation series edited > by Steve Jones - seems to be following a different practice, at least with > regard to another book forthcoming, _ Trust and Virtual Worlds: Contemporary > Perspectives_, co-edited with May Thorseth, priced at $34.95 for the > paperback. Perhaps Steve will have some helpful light to shed on these > matters as well?) > > I would be the first to point out that "standard practice" does not of > itself equal "right" or "justified". Rather, along with more or less every > other scholarly organization, we've debated the publishers vs. open source > approaches for years, along with the theoretical and practical matters of > print-based notions of copyright in a digital age, etc. FWIW, I think both > have important roles and places, along with serious deficits and problems. > A good friend and colleague, in particular, is consistently reminding me of > how prices like these keep important, perhaps essential scholarship out of > the libraries and hands of colleagues and students in developing countries, > something I'm certainly unhappy about. At the same time, of course, there > are also, um, enterprising workarounds, some more legal than others (imagine > my pleasure at discovering that one of my books has been made freely > available as a bitTorrent download ... smile). > > Perhaps AoIR and AoIRists can come up with better solutions to the current > conundrums? I'd be happy to see that, of course. > In the meantime, I also hope that these critical concerns won't diminish our > sense of shared pleasure in the scholarly accomplishments and contributions > made by the contributors to the volume. > > cheers, > - charles > Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab Helsingforsgade 14 > 8200 ?rhus N. > Denmark > mail: <imvce@hum.au.dk> > tel: (+45) 8942 9250 > > Professor, Philosophy and Religion > Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA > > Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 > > > > > > On 3/8/11 9:40 PM, "Nathaniel Poor" <natpoor@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Charles- >> >> The Amazon link you sent lists the book at $US 200 (well ok $199.95 >> and then a discount, but $200). >> >> Is that accurate? >> >> I know that's the hardcover, but if that's the price how is anyone >> going to buy it? >> >> Even the Kindle edition is $150. > > > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of > Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or > unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list > is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org > Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ > > == email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ webpage http://www.alansondheim.org music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/qx.txt == _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/