八十年代以来,以电子计算机技术为代表的现代技术开始广泛进入我国印刷出版领域,引致了出版业一场新的技术变革。研究这场变革出现的原因以及它对出版业将会带来的影响,对现代编辑来讲是一个具有很强实践意义的课题。现代编辑应该认真认识这场革命的意义,才能自觉适应这场革命对出版业带来的变化。本文谨就这方面谈一点粗浅的看法。 一、现代编辑面临的挑战 编辑工作也是一种信息处理工作,因此现代编辑也面临着现代社会的一个共同问题,这就是所谓的“信息爆炸”。据估计,人类的知识在十九世纪每五十年增加一倍,二十世纪前期是每十年增加一倍,七十年代以来是每五年增加一倍。全世界的科技杂志,在十八世纪只有十种,十九世纪初有一百种,十九世纪中期是一千种,一九六三年是五万种,现在估计是十万种。光是美国,每天就出版六七千篇科技文献。美国国会图书馆藏文献8830多万种,书架长达877公里。全世界每年公布的发明创造、专利申请、说明书等超过三十万件。科研、实验、工程设计方面的数据、图纸和资料的数量也十分惊人。例如,美国波音七○七飞机的技术资料的重量就达二十三吨。社会经济活动及其管理规模和复杂性与日俱增,也是以往任何时候都无法比拟的。我国是 Since the 1980s, the modern technology represented by electronic computer technology began to enter the printing and publishing field in our country extensively, which led to a new technological change in the publishing industry. Studying the causes of this change and its impact on the publishing industry will be a topic of great practical significance to modern editors. Modern editors should seriously understand the significance of this revolution and can consciously adapt to the changes brought about by the revolution in the publishing industry. This article would like to talk a little superficial view of this area. I. Challenges Facing Modern Editors Editing is also an information processing task. Therefore, modern editors also face a common problem in modern society. This is called “information explosion.” It is estimated that human knowledge has doubled every 50 years in the nineteenth century, doubling every ten years in the early twentieth century and doubling every five years since the seventies. Science and technology magazines throughout the world have only ten in the eighteenth century, one hundred in the early nineteenth century, one thousand in the mid-nineteenth century, fifty thousand in 1963, and now an estimated one hundred thousand. The United States alone publishes 6700 scientific and technical documents every day. More than 88.30 million documents are stored in the U.S. Congress Library, and 877 km of bookshelves. More than 300,000 inventions, patent applications and manuals, etc. are published each year in the world. Scientific research, experiments, engineering design data, drawings and information is also astonishing number. For example, the technical data of the U.S. Boeing 707 aircraft weighed 23 tons. The increasing size and complexity of socio-economic activities and their management have also been unmatched by any time. My country is