Dorothea Salo has published "How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative" in the latest issue of the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication.
Here's an excerpt:
Scholarly communication initiatives such as institutional repositories (IRs), library-sponsored publishing initiatives, open-access author-fee funds, copyright training and consulting, faculty-publication registries, and open-access publisher memberships must therefore be rapidly and effectively squelched, lest the system change in a fashion that disintermediates the existing pattern of library work. If these initiatives flourish, libraries will find themselves in the shoes of abbot Johannes Trithemius, whose De laude scriptorum (1494) presciently railed against the damage that Gutenberg's printing press would do to monasteries' lucrative scriptoria. . . .
Fortunately, scholarly communication initiatives are straightforward to scuttle, even when foisted upon an otherwise-responsible library by the provost's office or the faculty senate. Given the natural hierarchy of most reputable academic libraries. . ., it is of course easiest to put a stop to these misguided efforts from a leadership position, but in truth, any academic librarian can stop them in their tracks. Tried and true, proven-effective techniques follow.
Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Sitemap
