"Yashar Books is doing something bold" writes Rabbi Jeffrey Saks, director of ATID, in "Lamed" news blog on Jewish education. "They're giving books away for free online. Their 'Open Access' project just uploaded the entire text of a new biography, Rabbi Israel Salanter: Religious- Ethical Thinker. Check it out." Making good on its promise to offer full texts of books online, the Open Access Project...has made the full text of its $24.95 hardcover edition available for free download.
Will that hurt sales? "We want people to share the ideas," says Gil Student, president of Yashar Books. "We are convinced that an open give and take of ideas will create the right atmosphere for more learning and more book buying." Yashar's Open Access calls on scholars, readers and thinkers everywhere to join as "Idea Ambassadors" and spread the word about The Open Access Project to friends and colleagues.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/22/2006 10:08:00 AM.
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.
