Open Access and For-Pay Access (to the same IR materials)

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

At a meeting last week of consortial directors and representatives, an
interesting topic was raised.  One consortium had developed a specialized
(in subject) institutional repository using a particular vendor's IR
software.  The content in this consortium's IR is available to the world
for free and that will not change; the consortium and authors arecommitted
to this.  At the same time, the vendor is marketing the software in a way
that content developed and made available through the IR software by all
of the vendor's IR customers can be cross searched with some nice
enhancements - for a fee.  This set off quite a conversation.

o One side reasoned that owners of the IRs should/could refuse to have
their content participate, even passively, in such a commercial setting,
as antithetical to their desires when they set up the IR.

o Others reasoned that owners of the IRs should/could cooperate with the
IR software vendor to assure that the content can be included (author
permissions, etc.) so that authors can also get the benefit of better,
more focused search and services.

Any thoughts about this kind of situation?  There is a lot of potential
for a lot of re-use, re-purposing, upgrading of works that are freely
available.  It's a new world we're entering. Ann Okerson/Yale Library