RE: Publishers' view/reply to David Prosser

["David Goodman" <David.Goodman@liu.edu>]

It is absurd to suggest, as Joe does, that

> "Unwashed" OA... available to anyone without restriction-- [is]
> antipathetic to the interests of librarians, who serve as gatekeepers 
> with a checkbook to the world of proprietary publishing"
 
The basic function of librarians is to assist users to properly formulate
their information needs so they can be met by information sources.  This
requires the auxiliary functions of obtaining the information sources,
arranging them, providing catalogs and indexes and so forth. In order to
obtain many information sources, the library must spend money. This is not
the library's money, nor is it spent for the benefit of the librarians,
but is money collected by the institution that the library holds in trust
for the users and spends for their benefit.
 
Some publishing will [probably] continue as proprietary, and continue to
need direct payment by the library. Some publishing is already published
electronically so as to be available without financial restriction, and
here the librarian needs to select and provide appropriate finding aids,
which certainly requires work and money, but not payments to the
publisher.  As the publishing of scientific and technical journals shifts
from proprietary to open, the librarian will be free from the need to
arrange the payments and payment-based access for this material as well.
 
I suspect Joe is thinking of the mental position of a librarian in control
of a large budget and in the pleasant position of being able to choose how
to spend it. I have long been in this position, and any pleasure in
spending it is greatly outweighed by the frustration of not having enough
to spend--not even the largest library has ever really been able to meet
all of its users' needs. The larger the library, the more things one wants
to buy that one cannot afford.  If I were purchasing for my own use and
pleasure, this would be another matter, as I certainly could accommodate
even my own extensive reading interests within my budget--but I have never
been able to meet the needs of the entire university department.  Being a
librarian will be a much greater pleasure when all the material is
available, and I need only show the users how to find it--which will be
challenge enough.

David Goodman
Assistant Professor
Palmer Library School
dgoodman@liu.edu