Re: STM Talk: Open Access by Peaceful Evolution

From: David Goodman <dgoodman_at_PHOENIX.PRINCETON.EDU>
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 15:16:22 -0500

Jean-Claude may feel that
> > Librarians create the illusion of free access by supporting the whole
> > structure financially

and Stevan may disdain
> Anyone who prefers instead to fight with publishers over tolls -- or to
> lock horns with clueless lawyers, blindly leading the blind around the
> uncharted regions of cyberspace while clutching the old, inapplicable
> paper-based categories for dear life

I want to remind them that there will be an interval until the
scientists see the light and make their articles available by true open
access. In the interim, there is value in continuing some
system of scientific communication that will include the contribution of
those less-enlightened in this regard, but who may be doing good science
in other respects.

This does require people who will work to provide as much access as
possible to as many members of the community as possible, who will negotiate
with publishers over not merely affordable tolls, but access to unaffiliated
users, access by interlibrary loan, stability and permanence of access,
and access in the third world.

We do not work for ourselves: we are the agents of those who wish to
obtain information. I think both Jean-Claude and Stevan would want to
have some means of accessing the work of those who still publish in
monetarily restricted ways.

David Goodman
Princeton University Library
and
Palmer School of Library and Information Science, LIU

dgoodman_at_princeton.edu
Received on Sat Mar 01 2003 - 20:16:22 GMT