Re: Trust a high value in electronic content

["Heather Morrison" <hmorrison@ola.bc.ca>]

liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu writes:

>Well, that example is saying that PNAS should be free to US citizens
>(only), and Phil trans roy soc to UK , and CRASP to French, and so on.
>Question: do they mean residents of Canada, or Canadian citizens
>wherever they may be located, if they mean the later, then how do they 
>propose to administer it?.
>
>The only similar example I can think of is theses from a state university
>that shall go un-named, that are only accessible to their own students
>or perhaps those visiting the campus.
>
>I do not doubt the good intentions of those involved, but they have not
>thought things through--if we all make the foreigners pay, I do not see
>how any net progress is being made. I think the general concept is
>called
>merchantilism, but I'm no expert.

There are some very good points here.  I would absolutely agree that
global open access is the model we want to aim for, not access limited to
the citizens of a particular country.  It's probably true that NRC hasn't
completely thought things through.  In the arena of electronic
information, I don't think anyone has completely thought things through.

I do see the NRC journals as a step in the right direction, though.  As I
understand it, they have moved from a subscription model for everyone to
free access to Canadians through the Depository Services Program, which
makes government information available for free or at special rates to
selected Canadian libraries.  Opening up access at a global level could be
a future goal.  At present, though, Canadian librarians are working hard
with the Canadian government to ensure that the Depository Services
Program continues with no loss in service.

Some of the agencies of the U.S. government (e.g. NLM with PubMed), have
been a role model for open access.  It makes sense to me that information
produced with taxpayer dollars should be freely available to everyone,
preferably globally.  However, various countries around the world have
different philosophies in regards to government information, and have had
different reactions to the opportunities presented by electronic media.  
For example, it seems that the Canadian government has seen the electronic
medium as an opportunity to save money by no longer printing materials
that were formerly distributed through the Depository Services Program,
which as you can imagine has raised some very interesting preservation
issues.

With all the discussions going on in regards to worldwide treaties,
wouldn't it be nice if all our governments would get together and agree to
openly share all the information they produce on a global basis?

Wouldn't it be nice if librarians around the world got together to
recommend this?

a personal view by,

Heather Grace Morrison, BC ELN