On the Horizon: On the Horizon, Volume 14, Issue 1 (PDF)

Of course, books and journals are still very important, whether “brick” or “click.” As a quarterly, On the Horizon exists in both brick and click space. Its contents are formulaically abstracted so that they can be easily searched for and found on the Internet. The books which it purposefully seeks out and reviews are varied in nature, but hopefully contribute to the body of enduring ideas rather than merely providing responses to issues of the moment. The reviews are written by authors who are scholars, mostly employed in academic institutions. Ordinarily, our reviews are included in our quarterly issues along with scholarly articles. This first “all review” compilation represents a diverse mix of volumes reviewed by a broad spectrum of individuals, some from within the community of the book authors and others by individuals with more eclectic interests. Both the views of the book authors and the reviewers lie exposed, much like articles in such online publications as Slash-Dot. Our review issue does not offer instant feedback, but it does reflect informed criticism – an opening dialogue – and thus, represents a middle ground or bridge between the worlds of bricks and clicks .In many ways, these reviews pose questions about the future role of brick space publishers and publishing as the industry struggles to develop models for click space, often using copyrights as protection (much like union rules requiring firemen on diesel trains). Publishers have yet to find a comfortable model that the industry can adopt.The review issue also raises questions about the axial function of publishing within the scholarly community, especially the rush to create sub-specialized journals and the rising default by book publishers to compilations of specialized monographs, self-vetted by contributing authors and collegial editors.