Publishers, Students, and Authors For publishers, choosing the digital path can allow quicker dissemination of information, a boon in the sciences, medicine, and other disciplines where research results can become old fast. Even publishers who do not want to embrace electronic publishing can use the Web as a marketing tool for their traditional publications. Still, many academic disciplines remain wary of e-publications, choosing to rely on the standard, most reputable journals in their fields. Scholars may worry that publishing their work in an electronic venue is a gamble. Plus, it may not always be clear which e-journals are here to stay.
Electronic resources seem to pose fewer thorny questions for students.
Distance education students, who may have difficulty getting to campus for library trips, can now access a substantial amount of information online, from full-text journal databases to websites. These can supplement traditional materials that may need to be mailed by the student's university library. Advanced students can also complete much of the legwork for research excursions ahead of time. As archives, museums, research institutes and the like put catalogs of their holdings online, it becomes easier and quicker for students to identify those institutions that have the resources they need. This helps not only students doing research in the U.S., but also graduate students who may need to do archival research abroad.