Innovation through Tradition: New Scholarly Publishing Applications Modelled on Faith-Based Electronic Publishing & Learning Environments

Abstract

Faith-based publishers were some of the earliest adopters of electronic publishing; while many such publishers continue to produce simple e-books and/or websites for personal or academic study, a smaller number have developed comprehensive, integrated, highly dynamic electronic publishing and learning environments. There are lessons to be learned for the future of secular scholarly publishing through examining how faith-based communities of readers/learners are engaging in these specific resources. The tailoring of eTheology applications to communities of users also offers a model for a potential/future integrated scholarly publishing system that would dynamically engage in levels or knowledge domains of discrete (but interconnected) “communities” of users, collect and analyze usage and needs in real time, as well as provide clusters of resources and tools tailored for the user.