This article in Friday's Daily Texan, UT pays bookstore to showcase work - Top Stories, reminds me that the period of transition is going to be a long one. Professors still want to publish a book and UT wants to give them a place to showcase it, for students to buy it, for discussions about it to take place. I wonder to what extent any of the authors mentioned in this story are engaging their audiences on the Web, positioning their writings for conversation there? Let's see...
Patrick McGrath? Not that I can find, though he's well known and established. He's described in the Bloomsbury site as a guest lecturer here at UT, but he's not talking with his audience on the Web apparently.
Antony Hopkins? Department of History, UT, actually has his own website, but does not appear to be talking on the Web with his audience.
Also mentioned in the story are two assistant professors in the English department, James Cox and Neville Hoad. Neither of them appears to have an interactive presence on the Web.
I certainly understand the University's wanting to promote the writings of its authors, but I think it could do more by encouraging them to look to the future of the book as much as to its present. Unless they are planning to retire from writing in the next couple of years, they should do themselves a favor and look around, smell the java ...
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