Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy

by Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0814727881

ISBN-10: 0814727883

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Choice's Outstanding Academic Title list for 2013

A bold approach to re-envisioning the future of academic publishing

Academic institutions are facing a crisis in scholarly publishing at multiple levels: presses are stressed as never before, library budgets are squeezed, faculty are having difficulty publishing their work, and promotion and tenure committees are facing a range of new ways of working without a clear sense of how to understand and evaluate them.

Planned Obsolescence is both a provocation to think more broadly about the academy’s future and an argument for re-conceiving that future in more communally-oriented ways. Facing these issues head-on, Kathleen Fitzpatrick focuses on the technological changes―especially greater utilization of internet publication technologies, including digital archives, social networking tools, and multimedia―necessary to allow academic publishing to thrive into the future. But she goes further, insisting that the key issues that must be addressed are social and institutional in origin.

Springing from original research as well as Fitzpatrick’s own hands-on experiments in new modes of scholarly communication through MediaCommons, the digital scholarly network she co-founded, Planned Obsolescence explores these aspects of scholarly work, as well as issues surrounding the preservation of digital scholarship and the place of publishing within the structure of the contemporary university. Written in an approachable style designed to bring administrators and scholars into a conversation, Planned Obsolescence explores both symptom and cure to ensure that scholarly communication will remain relevant in the digital future.

Related Articles:
"Do 'the Risky Thing' in Digital Humanities"―Chronicle of Higher Education
"Academic Publishing and Zombies"―Inside Higher Ed

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Editorial Reviews

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"Fitzpatrick is well qualified to discuss alternate forms of publishing and unexpected futures for the academy...Chapters titled 'Peer Review,' 'Authorship,' 'Texts,' 'Preservation,' and 'The University' methodically dismantle arguments for the status quo, with sections debating accepted beliefs and practices such as the anonymous basis of peer review; recognizable, individual authorship; for-profit university presses; and the rejection of open access as a tenable scholarly publishing model." ― Library Journal

"[A] desire for pre-eminence, authority and disciplinary power is what blogs and the digital humanities stand against. The point is made concisely by Kathleen Fitzpatrick in her new book, Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy." ― New York Times - Opinionator Blog

"[Fitzpatrick] is one of the more persuasive advocates for understanding digital scholarship, and she acknowledges that while tenure and academic career building are still tethered to being published, institutions are starting to rethink and redefine what form that scholarly work can take." -- Bret McCabe ― John Hopkins Magazine

"At a time of great uncertainty about the future of the humanities, this informed and stimulating book buzzes with excitement for the opportunities that digital technology can offer to humanities researchers...Planned Obsolescence is a wonderfully clear and honest assessment of the present state of academic publishing and possible future directions. The digital age offers us a chance to exit the ivory tower and engage in more meaningful collaborations with peers and a more inclusive dialogue with readers. Fitzpatrick's study is a must-read, not just for all of those directly involved - academics, publishers, university administrators, librarians - but also for anybody interested in the future of the humanities." -- Alessandra Tosi ― Times Higher Education

"The narrative arc of Planned Obsolescence is tight, coherent, eloquent--propulsively staking its territory from micro to macro, personal to global." -- Neil Baldwin, Creative Research Center at Montclair State University: Director's Blog

"This primer on innovations in academic publishing is a must-read for all participants: university administrators, faculty authors, librarians, publishers, technologists, and informed general readers." -- P.E. Sandstrom ― CHOICE

"Thoughtful...Fitzpatrick is well-qualified." -- Henrietta Thornton-Verma ― Library Journal's "Xpress Reviews"

"Anyone who is serious about understanding the future of scholarly publishing--and anyone who cares about knowledge and society should share this concern--will find Fitzpatrick's book an essential, thought-provoking, and highly approachable introduction to the conversation." ― A Thaumaturgical Compendium

"Fitzpatrick's Planned Obsolescenceits title a sardonic speculation on the future of the printed bookconsiders how academic publishing might best resolve this challenging dilemma. As co-founder of the digital scholarly network MediaCommmons, Fitzpatrickwho lectures in Media Studies at Pomona College in Californiais well placed to observe the development of digital culture in academia." ― The Los Angeles Review of Books

About the Author

Kathleen Fitzpatrick is Professor of Media Studies at Pomona College and founding editor of the digital scholarly network MediaCommons. She is the author of The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television and has blogged at Planned Obsolescence since 2002.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYU Press (November 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0814727883
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0814727881
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.64 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,302,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #325 in Media & the Law
- #1,045 in South African History
- #2,089 in Media Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick is Director of Digital Humanities and Professor of English at Michigan State University. Prior to assuming this role in 2017, she served as Associate Executive Director and Director of Scholarly Communication of the Modern Language Association, during which time she also held an appointment as Visiting Research Professor of English at NYU. She is project director of Humanities Commons, an open-access, open-source network serving more than 15,000 scholars and practitioners across the humanities and around the world.

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Verified Customer

A thoughtful tract that wears well with age

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2016

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As the conclusion shows the volume suffered thru both the std review and an open peer review and arrived better for this critique. The analysis could have been written today, an indication of academic conservatism. While focused on the non profit academic press, it holds well for the pvt for profit publishers. What was not addressed is the issue binding people to the current system with no clear alternative, the default to the use of scholarly works in the publish/perish/funding measures distorting the arena as one for collegial exchange and diminishing or masking the content as content.

One person found this helpful

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LibSL

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2016

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Thank you.

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sbrnlb

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2014

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Kathleen Fitzpatrick is a true visionary

One person found this helpful

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Seneca

A confused volume on what could be an important subject.

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2014

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A confused volume on what could be an important subject. I never understood what the author was trying to say.

2 people found this helpful

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superba

Brilliant, essential reading on the future of the academy

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2011

Kathleen Fitzpatrick isn't just one of America's foremost digital humanities scholars. She is a clear-eyed humanist proposing real solutions for the problems of universities and libraries struggling with shrinking budgets and increasing bureaucratic constraints in a stagnating economy. This ground-breaking, approachable, fun-to-read book skims easily between e.g. the benefits of academic collaboration using new digital tools and the mashups of Danger Mouse, proposing a huge range of rational improvements to academic research and publishing.

Anyone involved or interested in the future of the academy should read this book right now. Those who've taken their cues in recent years from such popular death-knells as The University in Ruins and The Last Professors will find Fitzpatrick's work to be a breath of fresh air, and a stirring defense of Enlightenment values (if not necessarily Englightenment institutions) for the modern world.

13 people found this helpful

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Timothy Caron

must reading if you're concerned about the university and scholarly publishing

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2012

I have to be honest here at the outset and admit that a few of the technical parts of Fitzpatrick's book were a bit over my head, but in a paradoxical fashion, that is one of the strengths of the book. The author is just as comfortable and authoritative in discussing the technical, nuts and bolts aspects of how to transform scholarly publishing as she is in her passionate advocating for the very human--and humane--reasons why the paradigm of scholarly publishing needs to be re-imagined. This breadth of knowledge within the book is its greatest strength. Whether she is writing to university administrators, faculty members of various stripes and at different career stages, university presses, or campus technology officers, Fitzpatrick addresses them with authority, humor, good will and well-articulated arguments in support of a fundamental and profound shift in scholarly publishing. The book is a tremendous accomplishment. The author's new position as the Director of Scholarly Communication at the Modern Language Association is the perfect platform from which she can advocate for precisely the sorts initiatives that she is calling for.

3 people found this helpful

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LeeLeeMac77

Interesting, but a hard read

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014

The writing style is very heavy and overdone, so it's a slog to read it. But there were some nuggets of good information in there.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Ashuuuuuu

Bad Book, this book is bot what I thought ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

Bad Book, this book is bot what I thought it would be about, this was partly my fault but mostly the title on the books fault for being wrong and miss leading, wasted money on it and its nothing about planned obsolescence in products, if yours a product designer and are looking for a planned obsolescence book this is not it !! do not buy it

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Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy

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