If you want to read the new book by state Sen. Mike Haridopolos -- the one that Brevard Community College paid him more than $150,000 in public money to write -- don't count on finding it at the nearest Barnes & Noble.
That's because nearly a year after the manuscript was finished, it still hasn't been published.
In fact, Haridopolos won't allow copies of the manuscript to leave the BCC campus for fear of illegal copying.
Because the public paid for it, however, you can come to the school's Cocoa campus and curl up in an office with the senator's six-chapter, 175-page collection of political musings and advice to future political candidates. Just be sure to make an appointment. ...
Comment. It doesn't strike me as terribly unusual that an author -- even of a book commissioned by a public educational institution -- might be concerned with "illegal copying" of an unpublished manuscript. But it seems unfortunate that neither the institution nor the author -- a public official and a former instructor at the college -- evince any concern with taxpayers' access to the book they paid for.
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 4/07/2008 04:55:00 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.
