Leonard Allen, Director of Leafwood Publishers and Abilene Christian University Press, recently wrote a guest post for the New Media Project’s blog about the challenges and opportunities in digitizing theological texts. Allen suggests that digitization expands the potential audience for these texts and allows for increased interaction between readers as well as, in some cases, between readers and the authors. While these potential gains are significant, they are only achieved by a significant financial investment, which is an important consideration for publishers in the new marketplace.
So What?
Digitizing future projects is a decision for publishers; digitizing existing holdings are another matter entirely. Princeton Theological Seminary, home to the largest collection of theological holdings in the United States, is the leading theological institution in digitizing theological holdings.
What do you think the future holds when it comes to digitizing new content as it is created for print (i.e. as a supplement) or instead of being created in book form using paper)? for the digitization of theological resources at universities and seminaries? In what practical ways would increased digitization be useful to your congregation?