RE: Open Access in Europe

["Dempsey,Lorcan" <dempseyl@oclc.org>]

There is an important further point to be made here, which relates to
Point 3 made by Kurt below.

In some casese, European countries have mechanisms through which catalytic
central funding may be channeled once a policy direction is agreed. OA
activity is now supported by several national programs, which in turn
promote additional insitutional effort. This may provide part funding and
other support for some or all of: institutional project development,
shared service frameworks/infrastructure, software development, and
awareness raising.

Some examples:

Kurt mentions the Dare initiative:
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue41/vanderkuil/
In the UK see the various projects funded as part of the FAIR program by
JISC:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_fair

See also, for comparison, the ARROW project in Australia:
http://arrow.edu.au/

Lorcan

Lorcan Dempsey [http://orweblog.oclc.org] 
OCLC Research  [http://www.oclc.org/research/]

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Belder, K.F.K.
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 7:27 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Open Access in Europe

<SNIP>

How does this then relate to OA?  It is certainly true that for a number
of Western European countries OA and OAI are strong topics, but not that
different from the initiatives and discussions in the US.  At the last CNI
(Coalition for Networked Information) meetings (in Washington DC and
Portland OR) Open Access and Open Archives were major topics and a number
of prominent universities reported on a variety of initiatives that
parallel European initiatives.  I do agree that some libraries in Europe -
such as e.g. Dutch libraries - are taking a lead role vis-a-vis most US
university libraries.

How can this be explained?

1. I think a number of Dutch (UK, Scandinavian and German) libraries have
woken up in the last 5-7 years and started thinking more innovatively
about their services and mission that they had done before. This could
mean that European libraries that awakened to a digital reality more
recently have perhaps taken initiatives that are ahead of those (US)
libraries that were already quite awake for many years but might have lost
some of their edge in this area.

2. I also believe that differences in the organization of scholarly
communication (compare e.g. Dutch/US) might be more fruitful to look into
for an explanation why OA/OAI is getting a stronger focus in e.g. the
Netherlands than the US.  In the Netherlands most of the scientific
journals are now in the hands of a number of large commercial publishers
(Elsevier, Kluwer, Springer, etc.).  Premiere journals that used to be
published by Dutch scholarly societies and universities have been taken
over by these commercial publishers or have disappeared.  In the US we can
notice, at this point, a much more diversified publication market for
researchers in the STM field.  I'm thinking about a number of scholarly
societies that publish some of the most important titles in their field
but also about initiatives such as the Highwire Press that have allowed
these societies to compete with the digital wave of commercial publishers.
The greater OA/OAI emphasis might very well be partially explained by this
difference in the organization of scholarly communication.

3. One other important reason for the perceived difference in emphasis on
OA/OAI is that libraries and universities in e.g. the Netherlands
collaborate much more closely than the more competitive model that exists
in higher education in the US.  Whatever can be said on the pro and con
side of both models, one result of the closer collaboration is that when
Dutch universities and libraries finally make a decision to take up a
particular initiative it becomes more easily a nationwide effort - e.g.
the DARE initiative in the Netherlands - and the impact becomes
automatically much greater than the piecemeal approach that is more
typical for the US.

I'm sorry for this longish expose, but I hope my remarks can have some
value in this discussion.

Kind regards,         Kurt

Kurt De Belder
University Librarian & Director University Library Leiden University
E: k.f.k.de.belder@library.leidenuniv.nl
W: http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~belderkfkde/english.htm