Episode 47 – Publishers Bleakly
11 November, 20096 comments
On this podcast we’re delighted to introduce another two “irregulars,” Jennifer Howard, a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Josh Greenberg, the director of digital strategy and scholarship at the New York Public Library. Jennifer and Josh give us terrific insights into the challenges that digitization and open access are posing to libraries and publishers, and speak of new models that are emerging out of the chaos, including coalitions of publishers and the Internet Archive‘s BookServer.
Links mentioned on the podcast:
Research Librarians Discuss How to Sell Scholars on Open Access, and More
Columbia and Cornell Libraries Announce ‘Radical’ Partnership
Open Access to Research Is Inevitable, Libraries Are Told
Running time: 44:25
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Categorized under books, libraries, open access, publishing
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Mills Kelly
Rick : 12th November, 2009
Great show as usual. It would be great if you could bring up the volume on Jennifer a bit.
Wally : 12th November, 2009
This was a really interesting episode (or did it just seem that way to me since I spend so much time in the library?). I’m pointing it out to several of my colleagues.
Mills, I agree with you, while I’m not familiar with your book, it’s a symptom of something that 4 libraries in the WRLC group own a copy. I can see why there might be 2 copies in the group: Mason would have one since you’re a faculty author and we have to think at least one other site would have found it a compelling purchase. But four?
One part of the problem can be traced directly to libraries themselves: as long as they’re “ranked” by collection size (e.g., “volumes held” is a primary criteria for ARL membership), the question of who owns (and counts) volumes quickly gets contentious. Accrediting agencies have rules on ownership of materials and public institutions (like Mason) work under state laws that prohibit things like our letting George Washington University assert ownership of a volume that Virginia taxpayers helped purchase.
Would you be surprised if I told you that “cooperative collection development” has been on one WRLC meeting agendas or another for the past 10-12 years?
admin : 12th November, 2009
@Rick: Thanks–we do our best to get everyone level on the volume but sometimes regular phone lines are hard to get right.
@Wally: These are some fascinating points about hidden reasons that libraries are reluctant to group book purchases. Thanks!
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