Conclusion

- Life and death on the coral reef: an ecological perspective on scholarly publishing in the health sciences

Past Doe lecturers have challenged us to take action and alter our world. As Braude noted in 1996, health sciences librarians have evolved to better fit our niche [7], and coral demonstrates the danger of being unable to adapt. In 1980, David Kronick admonished us to intervene in the publishing behaviors of scientists [41], and now we have a compelling reason and an unprecedented opportunity to do just that. We have the chance of our professional lifetime. Let's not let it slip by.

At the start of this lecture I commented on some ties and themes that run through the Doe lectures. Let me end just as Cheshier [6] did in 1981 with a quote he borrowed from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

So, I entreat and challenge you to take an active part in preserving the marine environment that makes planet Ocean a habitable home today and that will determine our survival into the future. I entreat and challenge you to take an active part in transmuting the information environment that supports our professional life. So much is at stake, and it truly is time to seize the power.

Acknowledgments

I thank my staff, who contributed ideas, encouragement, and technical support for the lecture; the staff of the campus Educational Support Services Unit, who digitized the slides; Werner Lissauer for his generosity in allowing me to incorporate his amazing underwater photos; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for images from its Website.


Footnotes

*The Janet Doe Lecture on the history or philosophy of medical librarianship, presented at MLA '04; the 104th Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Washington, DC, on May 24, 2004; Frieda Weise, the 2003 Janet Doe lecturer, gave the introduction.
†During the lecture, the audience at the annual meeting enjoyed a display of dozens of underwater photographs by Werner Lissauer and images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.