[GOAL] [SCHOLCOMM] Beyond open access - towards a sustainable knowledge commons

[SANFORD G THATCHER]

Thanks for the link to Dan Cohen's talk, which I enjoyed. His point about "open
access" being a term that does not sufficiently convey the need for active
enhancement of discovery in today's crowded information world is well taken. 
As a longtime advocate of open access, dating back to an experiment in
open-access monograph publishing in the CIC (now the Big Ten Academic Alliance)
in the early 1990s in which i was involved as a member of its steering
committee, I agree entirely with Dan's emphasis on the importance of not just
passively posting materials to the Internet but actively promoting their
discovery and use. In advising Amherst College about the launching of its new
OA university press a few years ago as a member of its search committee for the
new director, I urged the need to include marketing as one of the functions of
the new press, which some might have assumed to be superfluous for an OA
operation.

I also share Dan's vision of regionally based cooperation that he limns toward
the end of his talk. I have myself published "A Vision for an Integrated System
for Open-Access Regional Publishing" in Against the Grain 29/1 (February 2017:
59-60 that is now accessible at Penn State's IR here:
https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/concern/generic_works/9w0892941r  In it I discuss
a system that starts at the ground level of local public libraries and
historical societies working with citizens in their area to find, preserve, and
digitize valuable materials ranging from business records to correspondence and
diaries, cooperating with state-level entities including academic libraries,
all the way up to broader regional consortia and then the DPLA where Dan was
for a while iys executive director.  What Dan says in his talk is very much in
tune with what I had in mind in writing that article.

Sandy Thatcher




On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 12:04 PM Vika Zafrin <vzafrin at bu.edu> wrote:
>
>Dear Kathleen and all,
>
>This is tremendous work! Thank you for sharing it.
>
>Two other recent works come to mind, that might be interesting and 
>relevant: Kathleen Fitzpatrick's blog post "The Commons and the Common 
>Good," 
><http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/the-commons-and-the-common-good/>  
>and Dan Cohen's recent talk "From Open Access to Maximal Access" 
><http://sites.bu.edu/humanitiesforums/dan-cohen/> (the latter is 
>currently available in audio only).
>
>The five prerequisites made available by COAR are beautifully, concisely 
>articulated, and I know we'll be using them in our work here at BU.
>
>-Vika
>
>-- 
>Vika Zafrin, PhD
>Digital Scholarship Librarian
>Boston University
>+1617.358.6370| bu.edu/disc <http://bu.edu/disc>
>
>
>
>Kathleen Shearer wrote:
>> (Sorry for the cross-posting)
>> *
>> *
>> *Open access is about the democratization of knowledge.*
>>
>> However, as open access becomes widely adopted, there is a risk that 
>> we will accentuate the inequalities and unsustainability of scholarly 
>> publishing, through widespread implementation of pay to publish 
>> business models.
>>
>> At COAR, we recognize that we need to go /_beyond_/ open access, to 
>> consider how to create an open and fair system for sharing research 
>> outcomes.
>>
>> To that end, we have identified 5 prerequisite for a sustainable 
>> knowledge commons (see below)
>>
>> Our full infographic is available here. 
>>
<https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/advocacy-leadership/open-science-and-sustainable-development/> También, 
>> disponible en español aqui. 
>> <https://www.coar-repositories.org/activities/advocacy-leadership/open-science-and-sustainable-development/>
>>
>> Please feel free to use and share.
>>
>> Kathleen
>>
>>
>> Kathleen Shearer
>> Executive Director, Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)
>> m.kathleen.shearer at gmail.com <mailto:m.kathleen.shearer at gmail.com> - 
>> +1 514 992 9068
>> Skype: kathleen.shearer2 - twitter: @KathleeShearer
>> www.coar-repositories.org <http://www.coar-repositories.org>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>