September 22, 1999

Donald H. Kraft

Editor, JASIS

Sir:

Thanks go to Albert Henderson for reacting to my article “Postmodern Information Science and its ‘Journal’.” His remarks suggest two realities that are hard to deny:

• The University of Washington pays me a salary and supplies me with an office, a computer and other sundries. Sitting in that office and drawing that salary, I wrote “Postmodern Information Science and its ‘Journal’.” The University of Washington subscribes to JASIS. When the university received JASIS, volume 50, number 11, the taxpayers of the state of Washington had, in effect, paid twice for that article.
• The publication cycle of academic journals is speedier that the publication cycle of academic books. All other things equal, the former is measured in months and the latter is measured in years. If I’m a scholar with time-sensitive results, it makes sense to use the speediest venue possible. My contention is that the Internet will be that venue for many scholars in the future.

A more complete version of “Postmodern Information Science and its ‘Journal’” can be found at http://faculty.washington.edu/tabrooks/Documents/postmodern.html.

Regards,

Terrence A. Brooks

University of Washington

tabrooks@u.washington.edu