Print and electronic books and journals

Abstract

The other day, we noticed to our delight, on the bookshelf in the residents’ office, Matson’s ‘Neurosurgery of infancy and childhood’ and Plum and Posner’s ‘Diagnosis of stupor and coma’, sitting alongside the latest edition of Youmans neurological surgery. We could not help but wonder what will become the fate of neurosurgery books in our Internet age; would it mirror that of vinyl records? Would tomorrow’s neurosurgery residents know the joy of holding in their hands a newly minted textbook and be inspired, as most of us have? Would we even have bookshelves in the future? The publishing industry is going through a paradigm shift, transitioning its focus from the long-cherished books and printed journals to electronic textbooks and electronic journals. It is said that the only constant in our world is change. Change inevitably has two sides. What are the advantages of electronic books and electronic journals? What might we loose with the demise of books? While neurosurgery is relatively young, it undeniably has a rich culture forged by many multi-talented surgeons. It is no coincidence that the father of modern neurosurgery, Harvey Cushing, was, besides, a pioneering surgeon, a Pulitzer prizewinning author. He was also an assiduous book collector. It is said that books and authors had been an integral part of his life [1]. Cushing along with his friends and fellow bibliophiles, Arnold Klebs and John Fulton offered to donate their superb book collections to the Yale University, provided that the university builds a facility to house them. On the 3 October 1939, while lifting a weighty volume of Andreas Vesalius’ anatomy text, Harvey Cushing had severe persistent chest pain for which he was hospitalized and, was diagnosed to have suffered a myocardial infarction. While he was in the hospital, he learnt that Yale University had accepted his proposal for the library. However, on the night of 7 October, he died in the hospital. The central medical library of YaleMedical School is now named the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Moreover, the book on Andreas Vesalius by Cushing saw publication posthumously in 1943. The long and distinguished history of books as a source of transferring knowledge precedes antiquity. The earliestsurviving Babylonian clay tablets and Egyptian papyrus scrolls date back to the third millennium BC. However, it was in China where the first clayand glue-based movable types were developed around 1040 AD by Pi Shang. In the West, Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz developed the movable metal press in 1454, heralding a revolution in publishing. However, now, books are in retreat in the face of growing demand for often cheaper electronic books. The popularity of electronic books owes much to the advent of tablet computers. The authors of this editorial are not against electronic academic media. There are enormous advantages to be had with them. They are cheaper to produce, easier to distribute and can be purchased and accessed at any time, provided you have secure Internet connection. Awhole collection of books could be held in a tablet computer, an ultra-portable library! Tablet * Ganesalingam Narenthiran g_narenthiran@hotmail.com