Will open access open doors to new donors?

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

**	with apologies for cross-posting	**

The private sector will benefit from open access.  This is fair 
and appropriate.  As taxpayers, businesses have funded much of 
the research reported in the literature directly through public 
grants, or indirectly through support to public universities.

Open access means expanded access to the research literature for 
the private sector.  This increases the possibilities for 
knowledge transfer and innovation.  When businesses have the 
means to develop new products and services based on the best 
available evidence, we all stand to benefit.  For example, if 
entrepreneurs have access to the very latest in environmental and 
engineering research, they are in a much better position to 
develop the environmentally friendly business and business 
practices, benefitting the whole planet. Products and services 
can be developed to the very best of our understanding about the 
real needs of individuals and communities.

For universities and their libraries, is the institutional 
repository and the library publishing program a new avenue for 
discussion with potential donors?  Many a donor in the past has 
seen the value of the university library, and contributed in a 
substantial way to collections and building.  Library open access 
initiatives not only greatly expand on the traditional public 
benefits of the university library, they also directly benefit 
the donor as well.

Open Access is not only an unprecedented public good - it is good 
for business, too! 
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2005/09/open-access-good-for- 
business.html

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, and
does not represent the opinion or policy of BC Electronic Library
Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com