|
IDC Publishers is highly dedicated to the publishing of cultural and scientific heritage. As an
outspoken pioneer in this field (we were already Printing On Demand in 1957) we have an extensive
experience in publishing solutions as well as a moral obligation to the scholarly field and
ourselves to provide quality and to initiate innovations. The information industry is changing fast. The changes fundamentally impact the character of institutions such as libraries, museums and publishers. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the scholarly end user is changing rapidly by adopting available technologies and new standards for accessing information. We nowadays witness a strongly web-oriented, 24h x 7d generation with a strong belief in digital access and availability of content anywhere and anytime. As a consequence, they also expect libraries to embrace the increasing absence of physical holdings and logistic operations. Hence, a new era has definitely started this century and paradigm shifts are to be faced. Due to the uniqueness and vulnerability of most of the sources that IDC is publishing, we feel an ongoing obligation towards institutions engaged in the preservation of cultural heritage to always incorporate the preservation of the sources in our platform independent publishing routines. Therefore, as long as analog solutions form the only accepted standard for long-term preservation, IDC Publishers will always incorporate a copy of the source on an analogue carrier, according to accepted standards for preservation, also if the short-term access to the source is realized on the basis of digital techniques. Whether access to a certain collection is provided through analogue or digital media is highly determined by the expected number of customers and the frequency of usage. The collections that IDC Publishers is publishing are usually for a specialized and consequently small number of customers. Often, only the analog solution results in a feasible publication. For the (near) future we are looking at the possibility to offer access to a digital proposition based upon the same sources. With decreasing costs of storage and Internet connections, feasibility of such propositions is within reach. During the past years, IDC has focused upon a more thematic approach and multi-year publishing programs for the distinguished portfolios. Thus our approach does not necessarily comply with the way in which content is stored in separate collections by institutes all over the world. Combining the scattered into unique propositions is one of our added values. Other important values of publishing with IDC are our attention for preservation issues and the share in the revenues of the published materials. IDC Publishers has proven over several decades to be able to publish highly appreciated sources for research in the humanities as well as to be able to realize significant returns to the world of cultural heritage. |