...While research has provided insight into the practices and behaviors of potential and actual depositors of content into IRs, little is known about the users of IRs and mass digitization....
As the cyberinfrastructure becomes more complex, new ways of learning about its use must be developed. This may not be easy. As Covey (2002) notes, “The methods for assessing new resource delivery evolve at a slower rate than do the resources themselves.” Yet it is worth the effort to take up the challenge of devising these new methods. Greater attention to understanding the user experience will benefit academic libraries attempting to manage IRs and massdigitization projects and will make them sustainable. If they are to produce more value for all their stakeholders, libraries must understand precisely how largescale, resource-intensive cyberinfrastructure initiatives further institutional missions and user-service goals.
...While acknowledging that mass digitization and IRs are two distinct types of initiatives, the author argues that their differences are less important to the user than they are to the librarian....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/25/2008 11:06:00 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.
