In response to my posting yesterday on W. Wayt Gibbs' story in the September Scientific American, I got emails from two readers pointing out that many libraries demand, and get, access privileges for "walk-in" patrons. I know that's true and even Gibbs says so. However, Gibbs cites Deborah Lordi Silverman, journal manager at the University of Pittsburgh’s medical library, who says that libraries winning this concession from publishers are the exception. Gibbs also reports that many libraries deny walk-in patrons passwords to computers connected to licensed databases. Although these are library decisions, Gibbs points out that they are often forced by publishers' licensing terms. (PS: Does anyone have good data on whether libraries that have negotiated walk-in access to licensed content are the minority or the majority? What about libraries granting walk-ins passwords to networked computers? Does anyone know whether these two kinds of walk-in access are increasing or decreasing?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/14/2003 09:06:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
