RE: Open Scholarship 2006: New Challenges for Open Access Repositories

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> III. What is a true supporter of OA (in whatever form proves to 
> work) to do when confronted with such a person? The least 
> likely course is to try to convert him to a broader view 
> through argument. Yet no one can say his ideas are wrong: no 
> one of us is no more likely to guess the future than he. If we 
> ignore him, others will think he speaks with the voice of us 
> all. If we confront him, we demonstrate disarray to those 
> doubtful of OA.

If OA were a religion revealed by God through his (or her) 
prophets, then I would agree that we should avoid public disputes 
over whether or not a particular solution works, or about whether 
one person's monomaniacal approach is constructive or 
destructive.  To risk demonstrating disarray among the faithful 
would certainly send the wrong message to those who remain 
outside the fold.

But since OA isn't a religion revealed by God, I have to disagree 
that demonstrations of disarray are necessarily such a bad thing. 
It's not our job to reassure the doubtful by presenting a falsely 
united front. If we really care about creating a workable OA 
solution (or a variety of workable OA solutions), then we need to 
be willing to argue about OA with those whose approaches are 
unworkably narrow.  And let's do so publicly, so as to bring in 
as many good ideas as possible.

----
Rick Anderson
Dir. of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
rickand@unr.edu