The Information Implosion?
Scholarly Communication at the
Crossroads
Susan K. Martin, Ph.D.
Visiting Program Officer for Scholarly Communication
Association of College and Research Libraries
March 20-21, 2003
Old challenge:
information
explosion
New challenge:
information restriction,
restraint, and
exclusion
The ‘library’ issue
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Journals – too expensive
Copyright – too long
Fair use – too restricted
Electronic journals – FAR more expensive
because of the ‘Big Deal’
• New government information policies – too
supportive of industry at the expense of
the consumer
• Private industry – too ready to implement
consumer restrictions
Is it really just a ‘library’ problem?
We think not.
Your faculty are already feeling the effects of
these and other issues, and you will feel
them as well
We have some pictures…
Journals are too expensive
Prices of commercially published
scholarly journals far outpace
normal inflationary rates
• Why? Are some publishers greedy?
– Perhaps so
• Universities and their faculties have
traditionally demanded access to these
tools
• Faculty don’t pay for them, and librarians
have until recently been superb at hiding
the truth of these costs
Here is just one example….
Courtesy of Cornell University Library
Sticker Price: $12,495.00
Cover image of the Journal of Applied Polymer Science appears with permission
of the publisher.
The Big Deal is not necessarily
a good deal
In 1999, the Big Deal seemed too
good to be true:
• All a publisher’s journals for the same
price you were previously paying for a
subset
• Incremental costs for the duration of the
contract, known in advance
• Little or no surcharge for the online version
• Minor penalties for cancelling print
subscriptions
The economics have changed
• With the world around us changing,
librarians must find ways to cut budgets
• Big Deals, often subsidized by special
funds at the outset, can be afforded by few
• Usually consortia make the Big Deals
– OhioLink’s 3-year contract with Elsevier costs
$21 million
The big publishers offered monolithic packages: You
(the library or consortium) get all of our (the publisher's)
articles in electronic form—but only if you pay us every
penny you're paying now for print subscriptions, plus
more, plus a guaranteed annual increment.
http://www.econtentmag.com/Magazine/Columns/02/
discontent5_02.html
While the [original] Elsevier contract was under consideration,
no faculty dissent was heard. One would have thought that
Elsevier was the premier publisher of premier journals. Now,
as the initial three-year contract is concluding, a substantial
faculty are emphasizing that Elsevier journals are the least
useful in their fields.--Kent Mulliner, Ohio University, August 19,
1999
http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives
The terms of copyright were
recently extended…
Unless this legislation is determined by the courts to
be unconstitutional… the American public will pay a
heavy price in continued royalties on old works.
Moreover, the public will enjoy fewer new works
because current creative authors will be denied vital
pieces of our cultural heritage for use as building blocks
in making new creations. For the first time in over 200
years of copyright history in the United States, this
legislation means that
NO WORKS WILL ENTER THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
FOR A FULL 20 YEARS! [1]
[1] http://www.law.asu.edu/HomePages/Karjala/
OpposingCopyrightExtension/what.html
Copyright
• Balance needs to be
restored
• Copyright extension
restricts scholarly
access and
knowledge creation
Fair use, so critical to the daily
needs of faculty and students alike,
is being severely challenged on all
sides – licensing issues, P2P
downloading, and the ability of the
content industry to win the hearts of
our elected representatives
What stands in the way of fair use?
• Court rulings
• Copyright revision
• Licensing agreements
• UCITA and shrinkwrap licenses
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act
• Fear of being sued
Fair Use
• Industry favors
draconian steps
– Licensing impinges on
fair use
• ALA Washington
Office and higher ed
pushing for fair use
– DMCRA
– TEACH Act
The Big Chill
• Public legislation
• Private initiatives
“Bad things are
happening. Real bad.”
“Worse to come.
Much worse.”
Public policies that affect
academic information
• Patriot Act & Son of
Patriot Act
• Copyright
• “Disappeared”
government
information
• UCITA
• Digital Millennium
Copyright Act
Patriot Act & Son of Patriot Act
• Less government
accountability with
Homeland Security
• But more freedom to
gather information
“Under the Freedom of Information Act, I’m requesting that you disclose what
you have on me in your files.”
“Disappeared” Government
Information
• Taxpayers paying for
information they no
longer have access to
• Examples:
– PubScience
– Eric
– Water resources
“Notice anything different?”
UCITA
• Uninformed consent
(shrink wrap licenses)
• UCITA down but not
defeated
• Database licenses
can restrict how
information is used
“I have no idea who he is. He came
bundled with the software.”
Private interests
• Acquisitions and mergers of scholarly
publishing
• Microsoft’s Palladium – VERY frightening
• Recording Industry Association of America
– battle to squelch peer-to-peer
dissemination
• Software and Information Industry
Association
Private sector
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•
•
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Software
Entertainment
Publishing
Monopolies and
antitrust
“This ‘digital revolution’---can we muscle in on that?”
Slippery Slope:
We’ve Got to Get a Grip
• Pay-per-drink mentality
– Pay to view
– Pay to print
– Pay to download
– Restrictions on resource sharing
There IS an information explosion
• Much more on the Internet
– But what is it?
– What is its quality?
– Has it been reviewed?
And there ARE efforts taking
place to counter the effects
recounted earlier
• Open access journals
• Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition
• Public Library of Science
• E-print servers
• Institutional repositories
• Creative Commons
These efforts are gaining
ground. They need the support
of university administrators –
particularly those responsible
for academic affairs.
SPARC
• More than two dozen new journals created
as competitors to commercial publishing
• Universities are not paying vast sums to
regain the knowledge that was created on
their campuses initially
• Faculty need to understand the impact of
this program
Open access journals
• Peer-reviewed, high quality journals
• Supported by institutions paying nominal
sums for page charges
• Contents are freely available to the world
at large
• Copyright is dependent on the author, not
the publisher
• Competitive with commercial journals
Institutional repositories
• Mechanism by which all scholarly output
from a given institution is made available
and preserved
• Enables the university to better grasp the
research and publishing carried out by its
faculty
• Example: MIT’s d-Space; costs $285,000
annually for the entire institution
Our New Mandate:
Collaborate and Communicate
What You Can Do
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Educate campus community
Encourage conversations among all stakeholders
Support open access for faculty publishing
Help legislators to understand the needs of the higher
education
Use resources (ALA Washington Office)
Embrace new models of scholarly communication
Become a player: articulate value of higher education
Keep focus on the needs of all members of the campus
community
Copyright is at a critical juncture, and universities
have an extraordinary opportunity to influence the
development of the law and related practices as
they affect higher education. If universities fail to
provide initiative on copyright issues, other parties
will exert their influence to shape the law for
purposes which do not necessarily advance
teaching, learning, and scholarship
Consortium for Educational Technology in University Systems
http://www.cetus.org/fair2.html
Questions?