RE: PNAS Introduces Open Access Publishing Option

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

David says:

> I do think that with a proper OA system to BOAI specifications, there 
> will be very little need for the immensely time consuming functions of

> keeping track of urls, getting them to work right in sfx or the 
> equivalent, and managing access to it.

I respond: 

The idea of an OA system that not only makes all scholarly information
freely available to the public but also organizes it in an intuitive,
transparent way is certainly attractive.  However, I'm not sure it's
realistic -- again, it sounds suspiciously like the kind of Great Day
rhetoric that we usually associate with millenarian religions and
totalitarian governments.  Until that day comes, it's hard to imagine how
a research library will be able to serve its constituency without
employing people to offer some kind of mediation between the disorganized
mass of scholarly information in the marketplace (whether commercial or
OA) and the library's users.  When that day does come, though, I'll be
thrilled at the opportunity to reallocate that particular chunk of my
staff.

DG has read this comment, and tells me he wishes to revise this paragraph:
I quote him:
 
"In view of Ricks's comment I recognize the ambiguities of the paragraph
commented on,  and revise it as follows:

> When we eventually achieve a proper OA system to BOAI specifications, 
> with the necessary indexing and integrating resources, there will be 
> very little need for the immensely time consuming functions of keeping
> track of urls, getting them to work right in sfx or the equivalent, 
> and managing access to it. In the meantime, this work will need to 
> continue, but at a proportionately reducing level. It is likely to 
> continue long enough that improvements in the available systems 
> remains an important need. "

----
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu