OA a great boon to rural and poorer communities?

[heatherm@eln.bc.ca]

It seems to me that OA could prove to be a great boon to rural and poorer
communities, and that this benefit will very much be felt even by the
world's wealthiest countries.

Although there are a number of challenges to rural communities in
attracting and keeping people like highly educated professionals, my
suspicion is that lack of access to quality information is one of the
factors that contributes to the sense of isolation and missed opportunity
that those who choose to practise in such areas must feel.

To take medicine as an example, practicing doctors, nurses, and other
health care professionals who practice in a teaching hospital can easily
visit the library during their likely very rare moments off duty, whether
to learn more about the problems faced by a particular patient, or to keep
their own knowledge up to date.  Doctors, nurses, etc., who live in a city
with a teaching hospital will have some ability to access this literature,
but are less likely to take advantage due to the time constraints faced by
these busy professionals.  For those who are practicing in rural or poorer
communities where there is no research library, keeping up would be a very
great challenge indeed.  The temptation to move to the wealthier urban
communities, just to keep up one's skills, must be strong idea.

To look at this from the perspective of my own profession, I would suggest
that librarians have unequal access to library science literature, based
on where they work and practice.  All of us who live here in Vancouver,
for example, can quite easily travel to the University of British Columbia
Library and make good use of the excellent collection they have developed
to support their Library and Archival Studies Program.  Those who are
fortunate enough to work at UBC Library per se, of course, have the
easiest access - they are the only ones who can readily slip over to this
collection during a lunch break, for example.  A librarian who works in
southeastern British Columbia, a good day's drive from Vancouver - and a
dangerous one anytime except mid-summer, or an expensive flight - quite
simply does not have equal access to the literature.

OA would not eliminate some of the other disadvantages that face the rural
professional, such as having a smaller group of local colleagues, or the
greater travel costs involved in attending conferences, but it would
result in equal opportunities to keep up with the literature.  This might
just help out these communities a little with the very real challenges
they face recruiting and keeping such key people.

cheers,

Heather Morrison
Project Coordinator
BC Electronic Library Network
heatherm@eln.bc.ca