Our Opinion: Press university to retain print publishing

Friday, July 20, 2012

University of Missouri officials may not equal the “firemen” in Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” but they are no friends of printed books.

In the futuristic novel, society considered books subversive and employed firemen to round up the banned volumes and burn them.

At our state school, officials have deemed the book publishing operation of University of Missouri Press too expensive. The initial plan to eliminate academic publishing entirely has been eased; instead, the university press will transform from print to digital book publishing.

Critics of the initial plan have not been appeased by the planned transition from print to digital.

Opponents have collected about 5,000 signatures and plan to gather on the Columbia campus next week to discuss their next steps.

In addition, some authors are signaling discontent, not only with their voices but with their manuscripts.

Former U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, a Lexington Democrat who previously represented Central Missouri’s 4th District, intends to take his memoirs elsewhere, perhaps out of state, for publication.

And Don Spivey, author of a biography of Satchel Paige, has asked the university to return his publishing rights.

“After 12 years of research to achieve the definitive biography of the legendary Satchel Paige, I think you can understand why I want the book, in all of its forms, in competent and stable hands for both the short and the long term,” Spivey wrote in an e-mail to Tim Wolfe, university president.

University officials said their decision was prompted by costs. The university press received a $400,000 subsidy from the university system.

We understand technology provides a less expensive way to deliver information. A survey this week revealed sales of e-books more than doubled, from 6 percent to 15 percent of the market, from 2010 to 2011.

Digital publishing is here to stay.

But we believe e-books should be an alternative to, not a replacement for, printed volumes. Among publishers, academia should appreciate and respect that.

More like this story

Sequoia 10 months ago

... and so should the state legislators, who approve spending on education.

... and so should the voters, who have elected all the legislators who are cutting funding to higher education.

... and so should students, who seem to place a greater emphasis on flat-screen TVs and tanning parlors in the gymnasium, football wins and "lifestyle amenities" than books and faculty.

Schools are not corporations, gated communities or entertainment venues, and should not be expected to run as such.

JCLifer 10 months ago

You kind of got to respect the Curators who may be realizing that printed books are quickly becoming relics. E-publishing is where it is at. Converting it all to digital may be a very smart idea.

JMO 10 months ago

It saddens me that books are not-so-slowly being replaced. There's just something special about holding a real book, thumbing through the pages, going back over passages you know were just a page or two back to double check things, heck, just being able to tell how far it is to the end of the chapter or making a note in the margin of your textbook. I own a Kindle, but I prefer a book every time. I work with young attorneys who don't know how to find cases in actual books from the law library! They live on the computer. They don't know what they're missing.

geekydee 10 months ago

Yep, I can see the archaeologiists of the future, finding a cd with the sum of our civilization and saying "I wonder what that was?" as opposed to, say, finding books or scrolls that are still readable, albeit barely, after a thousand plus years. Look at NASA trying to find a way to recover data from the moon missions form the 60's and 70's, all stored digitally.

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