Chapter 6: Archives, Libraries, Museums and Scholarly Publishing in an Age of Anxiety

The production of scholarly knowledge has long depended on a synergistic ecology involving academic researchers, publishers, and libraries, archives and museums for the generation, review, distribution and archiving of information and discrete objects of knowledge. In recent years convergences and competition between these formerly distinct entities—largely driven by the monetization of knowledge and research, and increasing economic constraints—has called into question the future of these relationships, and thus the reliability of the archives protecting this knowledge for future generations. This article briefly explores this changing landscape, and suggests that the economics of knowledge production is changing more rapidly than the ecology that makes it viable.