OA Funding

[Janellyn P Kleiner <jkleiner@lsu.edu>]

Am I missing something here? Why assume that libraries should fund OA?  
It appears to me that OA support for faculty publications falls within 
the purview of academic departments where such work is essential for 
promotion and tenure.  In academic libraries where faculty status is 
attainable, then libraries should pay OA charges for their tenure track 
faculty but not for other departments' faculty. To begin estimating OA 
costs for libraries makes it appear that libraries might be willing to 
underwrite those costs campuswide. I think that is a mistake. OA is an 
institutional matter, not a library matter. We have something of a 
history of entwinning ourselves in issues  to our own detriment.

Example: Fair Use Law and the guidelines on numbers of copies that can 
be made -- there was nothing in the law restricting the number of 
copies that could be made for research and instruction purposes. The 
restricted number and other such guidelines were proposed by librarians 
because we have this apparent need to quantify.  And, there is nothing 
wrong with quantifying when appropriate.  Now, because of those 
guidelines, we have various records to maintain, primarily in 
interlibrary loan, to demonstrate that we are in compliance with 
copyright law. Many librarians today think those numbers are copyright 
law when, in fact, they are not. Unfortunately, those guidelines 
created by library associations have taken on the power of law.  They 
were a mistake and resulted in our profession setting unnecessary 
restrictions that have enabled publishers to create a new revenue stream
from copyright fees to increase their profits.

I think our efforts would benefit our libraries and institutions more 
if we directed our energies to advocating Open Access activities. The 
NIH proposal is now "on hold" and appears to have been weakened 
considerably because commercial science publishers directed their 
efforts against it.  Meanwhile, we dither about OA costs and risk being 
sidelined in the real Open Access movement.  Are we going to let 
publishers find another new revenue source by suggesting libraries pay 
faculty publishing fees?

We need to be advocates of OA and support agencies that propose sound OA
initiatives.  We need to oppose commercial science publishers and win 
the right for free public access to publicly supported research results 
as they become available, not in another year or even longer. We have 
already provided the tax support and institutional support for such 
research.  It is ours and we need to make it ours possibly by providing 
institutional repository capabilities and even that role might be 
shared with our university computing centers. Let's not make another 
mistake that has the potential to cost us more in the future.

Jane Kleiner
Associate Dean of Libraries for Collection Services
The LSU Libraries
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Phone: 225-578-2217
Fax: 225-578-6825
E-Mail: jkleiner@lsu.edu