Alan,

An important question is what steps have been taken by the users.  For example, some libraries offer guest passes to users who do not have an institutional affiliation.  Simply sitting down at a computer might not make that option available, but talking to a librarian might.  I’m not trying to put the burden on the independent researchers, as this is clearly a communication breakdown.  Nonetheless, it’ll be important to tease out the distinctions between “no open access to databases” and “negotiated access to databases.”

A more systematic way of approaching this would be to do the following:

1) Choose a selected group of libraries

2) Check their websites for their policy on guest access to electronic resources

3) Write those on which you can’t find the policy to ask them what theirs is.

This will give you some hard data – where is access available?  How much is this made known?  How many institutions didn’t bother to write me back? – that the personal narratives can back up or refute.

I’m not the one here who looks over the contracts, but librarians will confirm that access to all is prohibitively expensive in most contracts.  A certain number of guest users might be approved as part of the licensing agreement.  If you want me to put you in touch with our local electronic resources librarian, please write me off-list.

Thanks,

Dan Harms

Coordinator of Instruction Librarian

SUNY Cortland Memorial Library

(607) 753-4042

From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Pritchard
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:00 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.]