The Path Before Us: Suggestions for Managing the Transition of the Spanish Middle Ages to the Electronic Age

Information Technology and Hispanic Studies THE PATH BEFORE US: SUGGESTIONS FOR MANAGING THE TRANSITION OF THE SPANISH MIDDLE AGES TO THE ELECTRONIC AGE Frank Domínguez The University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill A promising assistant professor recently asked what I thought about publishing an article in an electronicjournal housed at a prestigious institution. The question did not surprise me, because the medium had been present for all of his adult life. I urged him to be cautious, because of his rank.1 As someone who has been involved in the creation of electronic materials for the past two decades, I was disappointed with the conservative nature of my advice. And as I tried to come to terms with it, I realized that my reluctance stemmed in large measure from the lack of scholarly infrastructure for electronic materials, including guidelines and standards of peer review, comparable to those that ensure the quality of print materials. As a profession, we have not yet developed an academic culture that can evaluate such activities. Consequendy , we are reluctant to reward electronic publications when it comes to tenure, promotion, or even yearly salary raises. Under these circumstances, I could not in good conscience recommend diat any junior faculty risk spending precious time before tenure involved in activities that might not be recognized or rewarded at that crucial 1 This paper began as a talk entitled "Electronic Dreams or Nightmares" presented at the International Congress ofMedieval Studies, in Kalamazoo, May 2002. At that time it focused primarily on the problems associated with publishing in various types ofelectronicjournals . U CORoNICA 33.1 (Fall, 2004): 231-47 232Frank DomínguezLa coránica 33.1, 2004 point in his or her career. The question set me to thinking about the future, and how we might work together to build the evaluative scholarly infrastructure for our field that will help us manage the transition from the print to the electronic world. As a group, we Spanish medievalists have been ahead of other areas in our development and use ofelectronic texts and tools. We are all aware of the benefits associated with some of the major electronic projects that are changing our profession. From the comfort of our homes and offices, we can now go to PhiloBiblon at Berkeley to find the contents of medieval Spanish manuscripts and use the editions available from the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (HSMS), ADMYTE, or the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cenantes. We can visit libraries and museums online and see examples of their current or past exhibitions. We have access to web sites where some of the best current books and articles on medieval Spanish history and literature are available. We can quickly contact Spanish medievalists through Mediber. And I am sure that most Spanish medievalists cannot resist surfing die web for course materials. Given die manifest success of die medium, where are the problems? As we know, the objectives of scholarly books and journals are 1) to facilitate die exchange ofresearch, 2) to give credit to the researcher, and 3) to establish an historical, archival record of achievements that is under the control of fellow members of a profession. In turn, this record is used in awarding tenure and promotion to faculty at institutions of higher learning. Technology wonderfully achieves the first stated objective by facilitating research and communication between researchers, and by providing links to related primary and secondary sources, reference tools, illustrations, images and discussion lists. It fulfills the second and third objectives of peer-reviewed publications only partially, and basic questions relating to cost, the use of open standards, die searchability of databases, and die longevity of electronic archives remain to be answered. The current faculty view of electronic publishing was the subject of a recent poll in Canadian universities. It concluded that aldiough many scholars are now active users of electronic resources, most of diem are "much less likely to try to publish their own scholarship electronically "." The reasons, which can be applied to universities in diis - Keith Archer, Opinion Poll on Electronic Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences, HSSFC Report (http://www.ourfuturcourpast.ca/e-puh/poll/poll.htm). The problem is also discussed ill Mary...