The extent of adoption of e- publishing by university presses in Kenya

Abstract

1 Publishing refers to the act of selecting, producing and disseminating documents or literary works such as books, newspapers, magazines, tabloids and much more to a large audience. In a traditional sense it involves the distribution of printed works. Seemingly, there is a shift in technological approaches in the way publishing is done. Conversely, with 21st century, many publishing houses are engaging in electronic publishing as a complementary to traditional publishing. 2 According to Peek, R.P and Newby, B.N (1996), Electronic publishing is not necessarily bound by any traditions. With precision, Chennupati, Schubert and Heng (2006) argue that it refers to the application of computing software by a publisher to information content created and packaged for a specific audience, and the distribution of the final product through electronic means. 3 The term “electronic publishing” can be interpreted in many different ways. As such, publishing is an integrated process aimed at providing information in different quantities and with different qualities to different categories of end-users (Ramaiah et al. 2006). It can also extend to be a networking support to collaborative authorship and electronic communication among authors, editors, referees, and other participants in the publishing process. Since “publishing” implies production and distribution, however, the term refers most obviously to the generation of publications in electronic form or, at least, with the aid of electronics (Lancaste 1995). 4 The personal computer has revolutionized communication, and digitized text has introduced a radically new medium of expression (Hanham 1993). Moreover, these medium of expression are in form of e-resources such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, websites, networks and blogs.