Re: Functioning IRs - today's real realities

From: Arthur Sale <ahjs_at_ozemail.com.au>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 07:41:44 +1100

True. A lot of people are using the term IR for sideshows such as
digitizations of historical collections and image collections, not to
mention learning objects and e-publishing, while only five universities in
the world have so far achieved near 100% content of peer reviewed freely
available articles.

It is truly strange to observe such a lot of misguided people wasting their
time and their institution's money on low-priority issues. When we have
achieved world coverage of peer-reviewed articles, then is the time to spend
on some of these unclear (and much more expensive) issues.

Arthur Sale

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
[mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-
> ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG] On Behalf Of Hamaker, Chuck
> Sent: Tuesday, 13 December 2005 06:58
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Re: [AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM] Functioning IRs -
today's
> real realities
>
> Perhaps we have a problem with terminology, as IR seems to be used as a
> catch-all for a lot of e-object archiving duties encompassing items well
> beyond the peer reviewed freely available article.
>
> Chuck Hamaker
> Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
> Atkins Library
> University of North Carolina Charlotte
> Charlotte, NC 28223
> phone 704 687-2825
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Scientist Open Access Forum
> [mailto:AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG]
> On
> Behalf Of Subbiah Arunachalam
> Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 9:13 AM
> To: AMERICAN-SCIENTIST-OPEN-ACCESS-FORUM_at_LISTSERVER.SIGMAXI.ORG
> Subject: Re: Functioning IRs - today's real realities
>
> The cost of setting up an archive in most developing
> country institutions is much less than what librarians
> from advanced countries are quoting. Please talk to Mr
> Francis Jayakanth of the National Centre for Science
> Information at the Indian Institute of Science, who is
> running one of the best institutional open access
> archives in this part of the world. Or talk to his
> Chairman, Prof. N Balakrishnan, Associate Director of
> IISc, who is heading the Indian part of the Million
> Books digitization project as well.
>
> What developing country scientists need today is an
> archive of research papers that are published (or
> going to be published) in refereed professional
> journals. Not a comprehensive repository which would
> include annual report of the institution, admission
> records, proceedings of the senate and syndicate
> meetings, etc. We need access to hard research
> information which we are unable to get now because we
> do not have the money to subscribe to all the journals
> relevant to the research we do.
>
> Again, OA journals produced in India are produced at a
> much lower cost than PLos and BMC and other advanced
> country author-pay OA journals. And NOT one of them
> charges author fees. Please talk to Mr G Madhavan,
> Secretary of Indian Academy of Sciences, and Dr D K
> Sahu of MedKnow Publications.
>
> I am fed up hearing reasons for not adopting OA citing
> wrong numbers (on costs).
>
> Arun
> [Subbiah Arunachalam]
>
>
> --- Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ECS.SOTON.AC.UK> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Pippa Smart wrote:
> >
> > > The requirements of Yale have - probably
> > inevitably - led to the large cost
> > > of implementation as stated by Ann Okerson, and
> > for them there were
> > > probably no turnkey solutions - I am sure they
> > would have considered ePrints.
> > >
> > > Another interesting cost comparison of launching
> > and operating these
> > > repositories has been collated by Rebecca Kemp
> > from University of North
> > > Carolina. It gives costs from 10 libraries from
> > the USA, UK, Canada and
> > > Ireland, and shows a range from $6k to $1million
> > for setup.
> > >
> >
> <http://library.uncwil.edu/Faculty/kempr/listserv-summary-IR-open-source
> -costs.xls>http://library.uncwil.edu/Faculty/kempr/listserv-summary-IR-o
> pen-source-costs.xls
> >
> > We in part create today's realities. And among those
> > realities is the fact
> > that universities are continuing -- daily, weekly,
> > monthly, cumulatively
> > -- to lose 25%-250%+ percent of their potential
> > research impact, simply
> > because they are not yet self-archiving their
> > research output. Alongside
> > pursuing the less urgent and more diffuse,
> > open-ended and pricey
> > agenda of long-term digital curation, would it not
> > make sense to *also*
> > adopt, in parallel, a low-end "turnkey" solution
> > aimed specifically at
> > stanching the needless chronic loss of research
> > impact? Paradoxically,
> > the negligible ($6K) investment and focussed target
> > can net a lot more
> > concrete, immediate and short- and long-term
> > benefit, including research
> > progress and revenue, than just aimlessly
> > immortalizing bits willy-nilly.
> >
> > Stevan Harnad
> >
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
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Received on Mon Dec 12 2005 - 23:12:44 GMT

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