Re: Open access jeremiads, archivangelism and self-archiving mandates

From: guedon <jean.claude.guedon_at_umontreal.ca>
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:49:33 -0400

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Le dimanche 20 août 2006 à 20:49 +0100, Alma Swan a écrit :
> Library advocacy and activism is crucial, but it alone cannot achieve
> the
> result that mandatory requirement to self-archive does. It is, then,
> no
> wonder, that there is now a move in this direction. Several
> institutions are
> about to impose mandatory policies (not to mention four UK Research
> Councils
> and probably the NIH) and we shall be monitoring the content of their
> repositories with interest. Some of these repositories are already in
> existence, others are to be born-mandated.

I agree with all that Alma just wrote, but I would add that library
advocacy and activism can and ought to get behind the mandating issue.
And several librarians are already working in this direction.

Mandating is the holy grail to achieve, but it is hard political work.
This should not discourage any of us who believe in OA; on the contrary,
and it should lead us to looking for as many supporters and allies as
possible with all the arguments that fit these various groups. They are
not mutually exclusive.

Any group acting alone, even researchers who stand at the centre of this
issue, will fail if it remains alone.

Best,

Jean-Claude Guédon
Received on Sun Aug 20 2006 - 23:31:01 BST