Partnerships for Access to Information
From A2K Wiki
Contents |
Panelists
Speakers
- Serge Bounda - Chief Librarian , Sergio Vieira de Mello Library, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Hala Essalmawi - IPR Officer, The Library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina), Egypt
- Jason Phillips - Associate Director for Library Relations, JSTOR (Journal Storage)
- Crispin Taylor - Executive Director, ASPB (American Society of Plant Biologists)
Moderator
- Ann Okerson - Associate University Librarian, Yale University
A2K2 Conference Organizer
- Leah Belsky - Student, Yale Law School
Panel Description
Researchers and students, in all countries of the world, need access to high quality, peer reviewed information in all disciplines, and access to such materials (scholarly books and journals) can be immensely facilitiated through the Internet. There is a tendency to think of the traditional publishing or the business sector as antagonistic to the goals of A2K because they can't or won't give away everything they produce for free (or perhaps because we are unrealistic about the costs of producing quality stuff and paying for it in a sustainable way). Yet much of at least the scholarly publishing sector has programs that do make information widely available, especially to "countries in transition," i.e., developing nations. Speakers representing some leading publishing organizations will describe the steps they have taken to make books and articles widely and freely available -- particularly to the developing world.
How can this be accomplished? What are the costs? How are the costs being met? How can these initiatives be sustained over a long period of time? Is it reasonable to expect wealthier countries and institutions to cover costs for the rest of the world? What benefits can be seen and how can we measure them? What does "success" for such initiatives look like? What are some of the trends in these kinds of initiatives and partnerships?
Speaker Presentation Slides
Remote Questions for Panelists
Notes
Hala Essalmawi, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Barriers faced by BA
- Limited resources
- Limited internet connectivity
- Low-skilled users
- Low-skilled librarians
- Random content selection
- Limited awareness of IPRs
- Limited access to copyrighted materials
Projects
- My Book, http://www.archive.bibalex.org/mybook
- Digital Manuscripts Library
- Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage
- Description de l'Egypte
- Parntership for Dissemination of Knowledge
- Alexandria A2K Seminar, http://www.bibalex.org/a2k
Serge Bounda, Nations Library at Nairobi
We need partnerships: North-South solidarity; narrow digital divide; scientific and knowledge gap.
WSIS plans have encouraged cooperation.
Help environmental groups get access.
OARE used mostly in Africa.
Questions
Who selects which journals are included?
What “counts” as an international journal? What is the accreditation process?
Jason Phillips
JSTOR’s Africa Access Initiative:
JSTOR’s mission is to create an archive of scholarly literature
It found that few libraries in Africa were accessing JSTOR
Developed new pricing scheme for developing countries, then decided to waive participation fees
155 participating institutions
Now trying to ease the process for participation- electronic licenses, training, etc.
Crispin Taylor
Key publications by ASPB: Plant Physiology, The Plant Cell
ASPB participates in any scholarly society groups, publisher industry groups and ad hoc alliances
DC Principles Coalition: commitments to reinvest revenues to support science worldwide
HighWire Press: adding 15-40 open access articles each day
Mechanisms for distribution to emerging economies also exist
Publishers are exploring a variety of access models
Communities also organizing collective data sets
Questions
Why so little discussion of legal obstacles? Many of these publishers don't own the rights.
Resources and papers
Introduction to Open Access Journals
Articles
Open Access Publishing: A Developing Country View
Developing World to Receive Access to Critical Environmental Research
The Impact of Open Science on Library and Information Science
Books
Web Resources
Access to Knowledge Seminar Organized by Hala Essalmawi
American Society for Cell Biology Position on Public Access to Scientific Literature
