Re: Why Cornell's Institutional Repository Is Near-Empty

[Ben Eisenbraun <bene@pbtype.com>]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 07:26:46PM, Greg Tananbaum wrote:
> What I wonder is whether this list, and the scholarly 
> communication space generally, would be better served by asking 
> whether Cornell, or any institution for that matter, can 
> provide any compelling incentives short of a mandate to 
> encourage wholesale IR participation.

There aren't any.  That's why Stevan is so big on a mandate. 
That's why no one has been able to sell the authors on using IRs. 
The IR solves a problem that authors don't have.

No one says "I wonder what Cornell is working on today" and then 
goes to check out the Cornell Dspace.  Access issues are a paper 
tiger; authors will readily share their work with anyone that 
shows interest in it.

The current system works well enough for most authors.  The 
librarians, on the other hand, seem to be getting shafted.  :-)

--
Ben Eisenbraun
PbType LLC
http://pbtype.com/