Four Texas university systems and Rice University will collaborate on a digital repository whose goal is to offer online resources, such as teaching aids, dissertations, and practical information, although not books. The repository will be called the Texas Digital Library, but it will not resemble the California Digital Library -- not initially, at least. While the California Digital Library -- which provides books, journals, and databases to California libraries -- provides an inspiration, says Fred Heath, vice provost of the University of Texas Libraries, "this would be closer to the DSpace collaborative at MIT." The DSpace project is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's online archive of scholarly works. Intended to benefit both educators and the public, the new digital repository will be supported by the Texas A&M University System, the Texas Tech University System, the University of Houston System, and the University of Texas System. Rice, a private institution, is also part of the consortium. David W. Gardner, associate commissioner for academic excellence in research at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, hopes that the digital library will allow the various Texas institutions to pool resources in ways that will save money on digitization efforts and offering online information....Mr. Heath would like to see the Texas Digital Library go online by the end of the year, but he wants to be sure that the site has enough content to keep visitors busy. UTopia, a digital library on the University of Texas at Austin's Web site, is a model for the Texas Digital Library...."It allows us to make a statement to the people of Texas and the people of the world -- 'Here are resources that aren't behind the ivy wall. These are here for you too,'" Mr. Heath said. "We are very keenly interested in restoring the concept of public higher education as a public good, not as a private good and if you want it, you pay for it."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/13/2005 08:25:00 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.
