Cyberinfrastructure in the humanities and social sciences.

For a few months I've been following the posts over at the ACRLog, the offical blog of the Association of Colleges & Research Libraries. The blog has several contributors, all of them academic librarians working in the field. This is a perfect example of the way blogs increase transparency : reading the ACRLog has allowed me to hang around and see what academic librarians are thinking about as I try to find my own way in the field -- and I don't have to join an organization, pay dues or attend conferences. Of course I can do all of that later if I find academia to be my true calling, but in the meantime I appreciate the chance to browse.

Last week Barbara Fister posted about a report issued by the American Council of Learned Societies last summer. As summarized by Fister, the report makes recommendations about the role scholars in the humanities and social sciences can play now that, in Fister's words, "the Internet is changing creation and communication." The report recommends, for example, that scholars consider a larger audience for their work, including (again in Fister's words) "students and citizens, hobbyists and specialists."

Again, transparency.

Fundamentally, this issue revolves around scholarly publishing: expensive print journals and electronic databases. The expense exists to pay the stipends of researchers, and because allegedly the audience for scholarly works is so very small. But as quoted by Fister, this report suggests "It may make more sense to conceive of scholarly communication as a public good than as a marketable commodity," and "A relatively small audience on the open Web will still be a far larger audience than scholars in these disciplines have been able to find up to now in academic bookstores, in research libraries, and in print journals."