> the main rationale for using IRs to promote OA seems to
be that
> universities have a strong interest in exhibiting the
research
> that their faculties produce, but do administrators
really
> believe that?
It probably varies from university to university, but I
think
it's always about more than just showcasing local research
(though that is one factor).
At the University of Utah, our IR has strong support from
the
university administration in part because there is a sense
that
we should be capturing the intellectual products of our
institution for local use before they escape out into a
marketplace from which we may not be able to recover them
without
significant expense. There is also a feeling that the
traditional publishing model itself needs to change, and
that we
can facilitate that change, to some degree anyway, by
declaring a
certain amount of independence from the old regime.
This is (pax Harnad) a complicated issue, and there are
various
opinions within the campus community about what we should do
and
how we should do it. But the administration on this campus
sees
a number of good reasons for supporting the IR, and
showcasing
local accomplishments is only one of them.
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
University of Utah
rick.anderson utah.edu
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