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Heather Morrison, The Access Gap in British Columbia, The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics, March 1, 2008.
Abstract: This post illustrates the gap in access when we rely on subscriptions, a gap that is huge even in a have province like British Columbia, in a wealthy country like Canada. A researcher who does not see the costs of the subscriptions, may never see the gap. A student, while at a research university, has ready access to tens of thousands of scholarly journals, backed up by a document delivery department that can fill any remaining gaps. A student who graduates and moves to a smaller town or rural area will still have better access than many of the people in the world, thanks to BC's excellent public library system; however, this is still less than 5% of what the alumnus had access to as a student. A small public library cannot begin to dream of providing an equivalent service to the university, with much fewer staff and a much greater gap to fill.See a reaction post by Ryan Deschamps, Does a Fish Know It’s Wet? : Access to Scholarly Journals in Public Libraries, The Other Librarian, March 3, 2008.
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