Jim Milles, The Problem with Open Access, UBLaw Phoenix, June 11, 2005. Excerpt: 'Open access publishing has begun to take hold in law libraries, if not yet in law schools more generally. The theme of this year's CALI Conference for Law School Computing is "Open Source :: Open Law :: Open Education." An increasing number of law school libraries are undertaking digitization projects, scanning older or unique materials in their collections both for preservation and to make them available online to the academic community and the interested public. AALL's Open Access Task Force has been charged to "1) identify which issues have the most practical relevance to scholarly communication in the legal arena , and might be the focus of AALL interest and 2) advise the Board on what possible roles might exist for AALL that would result in encouraging participation in this movement." I'm not sure that I see the point, at least for most law libraries. Certainly our colleagues in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) disciplines have faced a real crisis in the rising cost of scholarly journals, where a single title can cost thousands of dollars....The scholarly periodical literature of the law (i.e., law journals) is dirt cheap, because it is subsidized by law schools. Where we are facing enormous price increases is in the practitioner-oriented materials --the "looseleaf" treatises and similar services from BNA, Aspen, CCH, and other commercial publishers....[W]hy are law libraries and law schools spending resources to digitize public domain information --and give it away for free-- rather than developing revenue generating online projects? Why doesn't a law school with, say, a research center in family law or technology and intellectual property, produce the online treatise in their area, to compete with the commercial publishers, and marketed --for a fee-- to law firms and attorneys? Could CALI or a similar organization get into the legal publishing arena, under some sort of profit-sharing agreement with schools and faculty?'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/12/2005 11:53:00 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.
