The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, which includes my awesome weblog definition, has been published, but is unfortunately rather expensive. The silver lining is that that means people who want to cite my definition don’t buy the book, instead they end up emailing me to ask what the page number is. Well, OK, so two people did. I’m impressed and hereby announce that my definition is on page 45. Unfortunately it only takes up one page.
Here’s the reference:
Walker, Jill. “Weblog.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory. Eds. David Herman, Manfred Jahn and Marie-Laure Ryan. London and New York: Routledge, 2005. 45.
That lone page number looks so silly, but I think it’ll just have to live with it.
Marie-Laure Ryan, one of the editors, tells me there’ll be an electronic version that libraries will hopefully subscribe to. That will be nice.
nick
The US$210 price, and lack of free online access, is quite unfortunate.
I noticed that four years ago the Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy was published – 3 vols., US$705. Google Scholar shows that there are no articles on the Web that cite the book, aside from the two that cite the “Subsidies” entry, one that cites the “Bretton Woods System” entry, one that cites the “Inclusive Democracy” entry, and one that cites the “New International Economic Order” entry. (The only other thing that looks like a citation on Google Scholar is a list of “political studies books” from the journal Political Studies that mentions the book.)
Guess what all of these entries all have in common? They were all published on the Web. And since no one gave page numbers in citing these (and most gave URLs), the scholars who referred to them almost certainly only read the Web publications of these entries.
Is there any evidence elsewhere that these sorts of extremely costly, hardback-only encyclopedia publications actually serve the intellectual community? Maybe articles are duplicated for classroom use (which may not even be legal) and don’t get cited because they’re used in teaching rather than research. Or I suppose you could argue that those four entries wouldn’t have been on the Web in the first place unless REIPE was put together … but that seems like a pretty feeble justification.
Jill
Great research, Nick. I guess we’re lucky that the Encyclopedia of Narrative THeory “only” costs $210…
I wonder who does buy these encyclopedias. I certainly can’t afford to, even with the generous 10% contributor’s discount. I will admit though that I wouldn’t have written the weblog definition if Marie-Laure hadn’t asked me to write it for the encyclopedia, and it’s quite likely that part of the reason it’s quoted as much as it is is that it’s got the official Routledge stamp.
But considering that most of the entries in the Encyclopedia AREN’T online it does seem rather a waste. Such a pity, because it’s a wonderful reference work, one I’d love to own.
andy
hmm. presumably the publisher is relying on ‘captive’ institutional (ie university library) sales…it’s hard to see how any other sales model could work.
c’mon Jill, paraphrase that article for the rest of us! (i promise i won’t tell the editor…)
🙂
Jill
Oh, my definition’s definitely online! Of course!
Sbu
Can I go out on a limb and say that perhaps the reason your blog definition is oft quoted is that it’s quite good? I know that I’ve used it a few times and will again for a forthcoming ‘handbook’ – let’s hope it’s not as expensive as ‘RENT’.
When will you begin a revision for the new edition?
andy
i never doubted you for a moment.
Jose Angel
Congratulations, Jill. I guess I’m one of the “unhappy few” who will take a deep breath and buy the book, but I think your solution, always publish online anyway, is quite sensible.
Jill
That’s great that the book will have some real readers, Jose Angel! And Sbu, thank you 🙂