ABSTRACT
As the twentieth century draws to a close, increasingly rapid electronic commu nication is challenging the viability of all print media and has accelerated change in the nature of scientific discourse. In that discourse, the printed monograph, at first central, gave way long ago to journals and paper preprints. But now scientific disciplines are moving quickly to embrace electronic modes of publica tion - so much so that some academic scientists never enter the traditional research library - with important consequences for both libraries and the printed volumes that fill them. It is thus timely to remind ourselves of the roles played first by books, and then by periodicals, in the emergence of modern science.
