The National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB) announced today that it would "secure the long-term digital archiving of all research published by BioMed Central". The BMC articles will be available in print to walk-in KB patrons and online at the KB web site. Quoting KB official Wim van Drimmelen: "Long-term preservation is part of the mission of the KB and features among our main strategic goals. Unlike printed publications, digital publications require from the publisher an active part in the archiving. Therefore arrangements with publishers are essential to realise the safe-keeping of the intellectual output of scientists." Quoting BMC publisher Jan Velterop: "Open Access authors want reassurance that their work will be freely available in the future. The KB deal delivers such assurances. This is the first sizeable quantity of fully open access research articles to be archived by the KB, which means that that part of the library's archive can be fully open to anyone who cares to seek access. " (PS: This is a very credible back-up to BMC's own preservation efforts. Other open-access publishers --and other major libraries-- should initiate similar agreements.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/17/2003 01:40:00 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.
