Re: The new Science site license

[Rick Anderson <rick_anderson@uncg.edu>]

> Here at Science, we're not surprised when librarians raise the archiving
> question. It's an important one that will effect everyone: publishers,
> libraries, and scholars. It definitely needs a resolution sooner rather
> than later. Your comment makes it seem as if the archiving problem is
> really quite simple to solve, if only those pesky publishers wouldn't be
> so finicky about copyright rules. 

I think there's some confusion here about the difference between copyright
law and license terms.  Publishers do not set copyright law; Congress
does.  That said, it's completely within the rights of publishers to grant
(and of libraries to request) permission to make copies of material to
which they own the copyright.  That's a licensing issue.  So no one's
asking publishers to be less finicky about copyright rules -- we're asking
publishers, when it seems to make sense and when they don't wish to do it
themselves, to allow us to create archival copies of the information to
which we have purchased access.  Is that a simple solution?  In some cases
it probably would be, and in others it probably wouldn't.

> Second, and in the short run more important, how would you save money by
> printing it all out yourself? 

In the case of Science, there might not be any savings at all, and in that
case most libraries would probably opt not to pursue that option.  But in
the case of many science journals (particular monthly or quarterly
publications which are priced significantly higher than Science and which
do not significantly add to their content online) the saving could be
huge.  My comment was made in the context of a discussion of Science, but
was meant to address the issue of do-it-yourself archiving in general.

Rick Anderson
----------------------
Rick Anderson
Head Acquisitions Librarian
Jackson Library
UNC Greensboro
1000 Spring Garden St.
Greensboro, NC 27402-6175
PH (336) 334-5281
FX (336) 334-5399
rick_anderson@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~r_anders

"Metaphor is... in complicity with what 
it endangers... to the extent to which 
the de-tour is a re-turn guided by the 
function of resemblance (mimesis or 
homoisis), under the law of the same." 
             -- Jacques Derrida

"Derrida would not be Derrida if he just
left it at that."
              -- James Drake