Hello Alan.
 
I completely agree with you on your (latent) critique of the e-resource
system, mainly the "freedom" rhetorics masking a distinct reduction of same
freedom unless you can pay (and yes, I think we should polish off some of
the old arguments about commodification of knowledge, late capitalist
consumer relations and a lack of accessibility for all) - but I think the
problem is more widespread.
 
Although this has nothing to do with your question, I have felt increased
limitations on accessibility in the past 8 years as a researcher *with*
institutional affiliation. First of all in the subscription policies - less
and less journals are subscribed to because of insane prices. Secondly, if I
want something anyway, the cost has risen from nothing to a lot, putting a
severe strain on the budget. Thirdly, it has become difficult to order whole
magazines and journals because of prices; we have to order copies of
articles instead. 
 
So... I have the deepest sympathy for the situation of independent
researchers, and I really think something should be done (perhaps I can help
by supplying database information to you?). But the relations between
libraries, publishers and academia are more complicated, and the problem
streches beyond the tenure/project affiliation divide.
 
All the best,
 
Jesper Petersen, NTNU.
 
----------------------------------------------
Jesper Aagaard Petersen
Research Fellow, Dept. of Archeology and Religious Studies NTNU, Dragvoll
NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Tlf. 0047-735-98312
email: [log in to unmask] 


________________________________

From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Pritchard
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Exclusion of independent researchers from
e-resources


Dear List,

Please bear with me, as this is a rather long post, but I think some
explanatory background is necessary.

I am going to undertake some research into the exclusion of independent
researchers from library resources that are held only as e-resources. I hope
that I can use this group to test out some of my assumptions and refine and
formalise my questions before going to a wider audience. I don't know how
many independent researchers there are here, but I wanted to test what I am
doing against one 'user' group, as well as a library group. Some of the
background below is library-oriented, but it may be useful to see my
approach. My original questions to a library group appear below my sig, in
[] - again FYI

The background is that I am revising a bibliography that I first compiled in
the late '70s for my FLA (Fellowship of the Library Association) thesis.
Then I could go to any library and use the printed resources that I needed
(e.g. Chemical Abstracts, Dissertation Abstracts, Aslib Index to Theses, MLA
Bibliography, Psychological Abstracts, Art Index and many others). Now, if I
go to a library, the odds are that abstracting and indexing services
especially, but also primary journals, are held in electronic form and
access to them is denied to independent researchers who do not have an
affiliation to the particular institution.

This seems counter to several trends and principles. Without going into
detail (although I could!), I would cite:
(a) the traditional library principles of freedom of access for all
research. Think of Ranganathan's Five Laws, or Michael Gorman's modification
of these, especially "Use technology intelligently to enhance service" and
"Protect free access to knowledge." Library principles are in line with the
openness of the Internet at large and the accessibility of information to
all users (including those not able to physically get to a library).
(b) Open Access publishing. "Many librarians have been vocal and active
advocates of open access. These librarians believe that open access promises
to remove both the price barriers and the permission barriers that undermine
library efforts to provide access to the journal literature" - Wikipedia
(c) Changes in social patterns of working life, with an increasing number of
independent researchers/professionals who will tend not to be associated
with academic bodies all their lives, but who will provide professional
services on a self-employed basis. They will still require access to their
professional literature. Sociologists have recognised this problem with the
formation of Sociologists Outside Academia group (SOAg) which is part of the
British Sociological Association.

In view of the above, I want to try and get some information on various
aspects of the problem - at first on a fairly unstructured basis, before
going more widely to the library community. Some questions, therefore:

1. Have you been affected by the problem of restriction of access to
independent researchers at any institution? Recognising that this group is
international, your country, the institution concerned (broadly described if
you do not want to name names, e.g. 'university library, south west UK'
would be fine).
1a. What precisely was the problem and which resources were you trying to
use?
1b. Were you able to overcome the problem eventually? How?
2. Are you an independent researcher who has had no problem with access. If
so could you give your country, the institution concerned (broadly described
if you do not want to name names, e.g. 'university library, south west UK'
would be fine).
Replies off-list would be best, I think and I will summarise. 


Please, if any other aspects of this problem occur to you that I have not
covered, do not hesitate to email me.

I would also be happy to discuss any of these issues over the phone, as
well.

Best wishes
Alan Pritchard MPhil FCLIP
Tel: +44 (0)1202 417477

[1. Does your organisation provide any access to e-resources to outside
users (i.e. other than current students or staff). I would guess that there
might be a range here from 'No'  through 'Yes, to ex-members of staff' to
'Yes, open to all'.

2. If not, why not?

3. Some possible reasons that have been suggested are:

(a) the contract between the library and the data provider. Talking to
suppliers at one of the shows some while ago, people on the stands denied
that there were any restrictive clauses, but these were sales people (!). It
would be really helpful to see examples of contracts (or of restrictive
clauses). Has any institution made any attempts to get contract terms
altered?

(b) one suggestion made was that there was differential pricing so that
access to all was more expensive than access restricted to staff & students.
Is this the case? Examples would be helpful.]


----------------------------------------------
Jesper Aagaard Petersen
Stipendiat, Institutt for arkeologi og religionsvitenskap
Research Fellow, Dept. of Archeology and Religious Studies
NTNU, Dragvoll
NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Tlf. 0047-735-98312
email: [log in to unmask]