Library and Information Science Commons^™

Role Of The Publisher In The Dissemination Of Knowledge, Gordon B. Neavill

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Transmission of intellectual works from their producers to consume Intellectual works can be disseminated in various ways. In nonliterate societies, the only means by which constructs of words and ideas can be disseminated is recitation, either by itself or coupled with performance. With the advent of writing, these constructs can be recorded and disseminated in physical form. Publication, involving the reproduction of recorded works in multiple copies and the distribution of these copies to consumers, becomes in literate societies a major mode of the dissemination of knowledge.The publisher has three basic functions in this process: he decides, by assessing both …