RE: The value of open access & update to the Dramatic Growth of Open Access

["Mark Funk" <mefunk@med.cornell.edu>]

At 12:01 AM -0400 4/5/07, Rick Anderson wrote:

> Given the huge number of people who would have no use whatsoever 
> for free access to peer-reviewed scientific literature, the cost 
> of giving everyone in the world that access strikes me as a 
> highly relevant issue.
Specious argument. If the huge number of people who have no use 
for this literature ignore it and don't use it, how is there a 
cost associated with "giving" it to them?

One might as well argue that any free internet site has huge 
costs because it is available to anyone in the world. While it 
costs money to limit access via IP ranges and username/passwords, 
there are no costs involved in allowing access to things that 
people don't access. The only costs involved are for allowing 
access to things that people do access.

Mark Funk
Head, Collection Development
Weill Cornell Medical Library
New York, NY 10021
mefunk@med.cornell.edu