on Mon, 7 Oct 2002 Peter Suber <peters_at_earlham.edu> wrote:
> In the October issue of _Cites & Insights_, Walt Crawford comments on
> several open-access initiatives, including SPARC's Create Change,
> PubSCIENCE, and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) and its
> FAQ. Here are some responses to his comments on the BOAI FAQ.
>
[snip]
> Walt writes:
> >About halfway through the FAQ is one of those dangerously simple
> >statements. "Open access does not require the infusion of new money
> >beyond what is already spent on journals, only a redirection of how it is
> >spent." Does "redirection" mean stripping away the money that libraries
> >spend retaining runs of print journals and the librarians that deal with
> >the serial literature, as well as the "voluntary" abandonment of print
> >journals?
>
> The answer is no. The redirection we have in mind is to pay for the
> dissemination of articles rather than for access to them, or to pay for
> outgoing articles rather than incoming articles. Dissemination fees should
> be paid by those sponsoring an author's research --for example,
> foundations, governments, universities, and laboratories. As these
> institutions agree to pay for more and more outgoing articles, then
> everyone gains --these institutions themselves, as well as libraries and
> individuals around the world-- by paying for fewer and fewer incoming
> articles.
Obviously the answer is "yes," not "no." Libraries
and librarians support "incoming articles." If
spending switches to "outgoing articles," libraries
will be out of business and serials librarians will
be out on the street.
Albert Henderson
Former Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY 1994-2000
<70244.1532_at_compuserve.com>
Received on Mon Oct 07 2002 - 13:18:08 BST