Re: Usage of Open Access articles

[heatherm@eln.bc.ca]

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 21:03:46 EDT Margaret Landesman wrote:

> Re. Why OA articles may be accessed and read more (even by users with
> access to a subscribing ibrary); I wanted to suggest an additional and
> more mundane reason. They require no infrastructure on the user end - so
> they almost always work.

Margaret, I think you've hit the nail on the head here - this is one of
the most compelling reasons for open access, I believe, and the one that
makes OA inevitable.

As an example of how this works:  as a member of the Canadian Library
Association, I am sent copies of the CLA flagship publication, Feliciter.  
I could probably access Feliciter online even before the paper arrives,
using my CLA password.  If I could bother remembering my CLA password,
that is.  This isn't entirely laziness on my part - with the countless
(literally) passwords I need to know or keep track of at work, the last
thing I want to do in my spare time is keep track of yet another one.  It
isn't as if I have any lack on online reading.  Feliciter is included in
some library aggregated packages - since I work at an academic library and
have a public library card, I probably have access to several copies at
any given time.

As a Canadian librarian who often participates in listservs, I would love
to be able to point to articles in Feliciter.  This is a high quality
journal - plus, many of the articles are written by my friends!  But, it's
getting embarrassing to talk about journal articles when one cannot point
to a reliable URL that anyone can click through to read the full article -
so, alas, the good ideas and great writing of my friends and fellow
Canadians has much less impact.

For that matter, while the paper version occasionally helps to get me to
read Feliciter - paper fits better with public transit and beaches than
computers do, after all - for the most part, I am more likely to read open
access articles, even if my computer gives me access to several electronic
versions, and the paper is sitting on my desk.

This is about to change, of course - at the CLA AGM last week, a
Resolution on Open Access was adopted (also, by the academic librarians
group, CACUL - the latter, unanimously).  The resolutions will be going on
the CLA web site in the near future; in the meantime, the text can be
found on the SPARC Open Access Forum, at
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/2017.html (CLA) and
https://mx2.arl.org/Lists/SPARC-OAForum/Message/2022.html (CACUL).

a personal view by,

Heather Morrison

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