How #icanhazpdf can hurt our academic libraries | The Lab and Field

"Chances are that while doing a literature search, you came across a reference or a link to a paper that your institutional library didn’t have access to. Yes, it sucks. But what to do? If you’re on Twitter, you might post the citation with the hashtag '#icanhazpdf' (a play on 'I can haz cheeseburger' meme), and the denizens of the intertubes will scuttle off to check and see if they have access themselves.  If they do, they’ll send you a quick message to exchange contact info, and email you the paper.  Baddabing, baddaboom. But not really. First off, it’s against the terms of service under which the institution buys access to journals.  Some may call it illegal.  But things not being legal hasn’t stopped the internet before. More importantly, I think, is that it funnels traffic away from your library’s Inter-Library Loan (ILL) department.  See, librarians are all about counting stuff.  Those notices telling you not to reshelve books?  It’s not because they think you’ll put it back in the wrong place (at least, that’s not the main reason) – it’s because they want to record that book’s use in the library ..."