"Selfless Audacity" Means Creating a Sustainable Not-a-Business Model | Peer to Peer Review

Connotea Imports 2012-07-31

Summary:

"Bryn Geffert...has a solution that will sound familiar to readers of this column: institutions should follow the lead of the University of Michigan, which in a fit of what he calls "selfless audacity" decided to merge its press and its library, releasing its books to the world as open access texts. Instead of treating academic publishing as a source of revenue, or waiting for other libraries to enter into similar arrangements, Michigan took a bold step consistent with the library's mission. A small group of us in the Oberlin Group of 80 liberal arts colleges is exploring what it would take for us to follow suit and establish a liberal arts press. Though we're still in the very early stages, and it may not go anywhere, it's exciting to think about....As I write this, the comments at the Chronicle are predictably unsupportive. Librarians think they can publish books? And give them away? How ridiculous! It's extremely difficult for scholars to imagine a world where publishing isn't a business, but a public good. At the same time, they are entirely accustomed to their libraries providing the material they need for free. Why, then, is it so difficult to imagine libraries paying up front to make the books available to all from the start? ...The open access movement has made significant progress with outlets for scholarly articles, with any number of fine open access journals being published and open source tools available for those who want to start. Books are another matter. Though Michigan, Penn State, and others are making bold strides, there are limited opportunities for a good book to find a publisher and—more importantly—its audience, and very few that are open access...."

Link:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889840-264/selfless_audacity_means_creating_a.html.csp

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » Connotea Imports

Tags:

ru.no oa.new oa.libraries oa.books oa.up oa.libpub oa.libarts

Authors:

petersuber

Date tagged:

07/31/2012, 14:16

Date published:

03/28/2011, 10:50