At the VPL "Speak Up: Who Owns Knowledge?" Series session called "Open or Closed: Software and Information", held at the Hastings Branch last night (and which I attended), UBC Professor and Distinguished Scholar John Willinsky spoke,among other things, about the importance and advantages of open access for the public. An engaging and entertaining speaker, and of course, a well-recognized authority and expert on this topic, John summarized open access as "your right to know, particularly about research." John said he hoped to instill in the audience a "sense of entitlement and expectation." When asked what he recommends as ways to convince authors to publish OA, he said we (librarians) can appeal to authors on these 4 grounds:
1. Economically -- with OA we can distribute information much more cheaply
2. Legally -- copyright protects the author
3. Ethically -- OA fits with the human right to know
4. Vanity -- "It will make their mother prouder if more people know about their research!"
If you have an opportunity to hear John Willinsky speak about open access, take it!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
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