Five library associations voiced their support for the use of OpenDocument (ODF) in Massachusetts this week, sending a letter to William Galvin, the Commonwealth's Secretary of State. In it, the groups say the open source format is the best choice, as everyone has access to its specifications...."An important aspect of fostering access to information is ensuring that future generations will be able to read government information created today," the letter reads. The groups argued that although digital technology is creating new ways to access more information, it has made libraries' preservation role more difficult.
Now, not only do these libraries have to store documents, but also ensure they have backwards-compatible applications to view them.
The letter was backed by the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the Medical Library Association and the Special Libraries Association. The five groups together represent over 139,000 libraries in the United States employing 350,000 librarians.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/16/2005 03:17:00 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.
