Ken Young, Reading between the lines, The Guardian, December 16, 2004. Excerpt: 'The British Library is working fast to upgrade its research services in the midst of a worldwide debate over open source publishing....But the British Library has to perform a fine balancing act. It has the UK's largest collection of journals and periodicals, yet has to observe strict rules of copyright that define the way it allows the public, educational institutions and private firms to access that resource. And, like the BBC, it has to balance its public remit with the need to generate revenue. In particular, that relates to revenue from its document supply service, which is used predominantly by academics and corporates....Furthermore, the library is in the middle of the debate about making science publications free - the open source model applied to academic work. On the one hand, it relies on good relationships with publishers to ensure its work as a public repository continues; on the other, its commercial aspirations are restrained by the need to observe copyright law...."The move towards open source will make a difference," says Heggie. "Services such as Seds [Secure Electronic Delivery Service] are expensive and we have problems with copyright. Patients give their data free to researchers but at the end patients and researchers have to pay to see the research. I am in favour of open access." Naturally, the library is seeking to protect an important revenue source, and the recent House of Commons scientific committee report, Scientific Publications - free for all?, recommended the government protect the library's document delivery service.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/16/2004 08:50:00 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.
