ABSTRACT
Electronic publishing is changing the business of serial publication. Yet despite tremendous growth in the volume of electronic publishing, traditional print publishing has not disappeared; consequently e-publishing has introduced more complexity into the environment, and current service needs co-exist alongside the need for new services required to manage e-publishing. Some believe that electronic publishing will be the end of the serial vendor or subscription agent; others are not so ready to mark their passing.
Assuming that the current commercial model will remain relatively unchanged as the basis for most scholarly communication, the roles of serial vendors or subscription agents will change, but the services they bring to the library and the publishing community will continue to prove valuable. Support will still be needed for paper subscriptions, and new services are needed to manage e-journals. Of course change is inevitable, and those service providers that fail to react to the changing environment will go out of business. Those that are able to develop new products will survive in the changed environment. If the basic business model transforms, and freely-accessible institutional digital repositories become the primary 180nodes for scholarly communication, then the publisher/vendor/library chain will become irrelevant. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Setvice: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.HaworthPress.com >]
