A new one from me: Removing the Barriers to Research: An Introduction to Open Access for Librarians, forthcoming from College & Research Libraries News, 64 (February 2003) pp. 92-94, 113. The print version will be slightly abridged; this online version is unabridged. You're accustomed to seeing open access defended for the audience of researchers: as readers, they get easier access to the literature they need, and as authors, they get a larger audience and greater impact. But in this article I explain and defend open access for the audience of librarians. I argue that for librarians there are two overriding problems with the present journal system: intolerably high prices and intolerably extensive limitations on use created by licenses and DRM --or in short, the pricing crisis and what I call the permission crisis. I argue that open access will solve both problems efficiently, completely, and lawfully.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/21/2003 02:26:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
