Re: the value of IRs

["Martha Tucker" <mtucker@u.washington.edu>]

Another use might be by potential graduate students or potential 
faculty looking to see if the institution/department is a good 
fit.

Martha Tucker, Librarian
UW Libraries/Mathematics Research Library
Seattle, WA  98195-4350
www.lib.washington.edu/math


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandy Thatcher" <sgt3@psu.edu>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 5:01 PM
Subject: Re: the value of IRs

> #2 is a little vague, without more specificity about just how IRs are to
> be used for this purpose. But #1 is what I am really questioning, in
> practical terms.  The "relevance" to whom? The "institution's visibility,
> status" in whose eyes? Who is the target audience for IRs? Presumably the
> most important audience would be the people who make decisions having a
> major financial impact on universities, like state legislators or members
> of Congress.
>
> But does anyone have any evidence that either of these important
> constituencies has ever actually viewed anything in an IR? And what would
> such a person make of very specialized research? On what grounds could
> such a person pass judgment as to the quality or "relevance" of such
> research, unless it were research targeted to very specific projects
> funded by the state or federal government, which would normally be brought
> to the attention of the funding bodies through formal reports on the use
> of funds granted, not through materials found on IRs. So, exactly whom are
> universities trying to impress with their IRs?
>
> A true evaluation of the value of a university's research output would be
> a mammoth undertaking, far beyond what any individual legislator could
> even begin to tackle. What determines the university's "status," then,
> since no such formal evaluation is ever actually carried out (apart, I
> suppose, from accrediting bodies)?
>
> Sandy Thatcher
> Penn State University Press
>
>
> > Sandy:  A recent reading of Raym Crow's 2002 SPARC White Paper on IRs
> > reminded me that he gave two principal reason for setting them up:
> >
> > 1.  Serve as tangible indicators of an institution's quality and to
> > demonstrate the relevance of its research activities, thus increasing the
> > institution's visibility, status, and public value (what one could term
> > administrative aggregation).
> >
> > 2.  Provide tools to assist universities in re-shaping the scholarly
> > communications process (what one could term a repair function).
> >
> > Ann Okerson/Yale Library