Uses of IRs (was Berlin-3 Open Access Conference, Southampton, Feb 28 - Mar 1 2005)

["Mcsean, Tony (ELS)" <T.Mcsean@elsevier.com>]

There is an important view of the desirability of institutional archive
which has nothing to do with OA.  Many university administrators view IRs
as a very useful management tool to track the effectiveness of university
faculties and departments, and to use in the management, appraisal etc of
individual faculty.  In the UK much of this is currently institutionalised
in the form of the research assessment exercise.  From this perspective
any enabling of OA is merely a side-effect - which I presume, again from
this perspective, could be seen as desirable or as an unwelcome
complication because it brings delay and complication.

This is good for IRs because senior administrators can usually find the
funds for systems they think are necessary.  It may be less good because
the funders may not see the need to fund the degree of metadata necessary
for effective OA; and if the data are linked to personal HR records then
we there may be problems of addressing data protection issues (in some
parts of Europe faioling to do this effectively can in theory land you
gaol).

I've only recently picked up this other perspective on OA, and if I've got
the wrong end of the stick it wouldn't be the first time.  It would be
interesting to hear the thoughts of any senior HE administrators on the
list.


Tony McSe�n
Director of Library Relations
Elsevier
+44 7795 960516
+44 1865 843630