Open access monographs

[Paul Ashton <paul.ashton AT vu.edu.au>]

Title: Re: [OA-monographs] Exploring financial models

I think that David is correct when he make the point that it will be tricky balancing the content aggregation model with revenue streams, especially if we think about the advantages of OA content aggregation in the terms that Brian suggests. I am not totally across the restrictions on different digital monograph delivery models but the two common commercial bundles used in Australia are basically so restrictive that they are unusable (ebooks are in fact rapidly gaining a very bad reputation as an expensive waste of time simply because of the delivery systems and drm constraints). What would really make an OHP OA product really attractive is its usability; that content can be deployed throughout a range of LMS without any constraint. My feeling is that it is also only a matter of time until libraries have databases of ebooks where a user places a hold on the title, the book is printed and by the time they walk from their office a brand new printed copy is waiting, or a student orders a text through ‘WebCT/blackboard’ and picks it up next time they are in. However, none of these attractive (OA) elements is conducive to drawing revenue that is not transfer based. Possibly we could create some kind of voluntary licensing agreement that libraries could participate in but is not enforced (being OA it could not be anyway). That is we develop a model where libraries/consortia could pay OHP according to usage (or some such mechanism that is considered adequate to the acquisition specialists) on a self-managed voluntary basis.

On the issue of building content to a ‘noticeable’ or ‘useful’ level we may need to take on a number of strategies. Possibly we could/should 1) certify (or co-publish) small presses, 2) certify series and 3) produce OHP monographs. One of the problems for small publishing is creating management/administration processes (of course this would be a major problem for OHP as well), but potentially if OHP was to establish certain mechanisms smaller groups or societies (or even research centres etc.) could tap into producing and co-publishing imprints etc. With contemporary POD publishing set-ups (I am thinking of Lightning Source) there is a significant extent to which a venture can be ‘set and forget’. However, what remains important in all of this is how the OHP ‘brand’ functions. If we provide content to libraries, what we are actually providing is ‘filtered’ or ‘quality’ peer-reviewed content. Thus, we need to be careful not to bring in material in order to get a critical mass but in the process undermine the whole exercise. If we keep this foremost in our mind we potentially save ourselves quite a bit of effort and also in the process respect the work that is being done by others.

Best

Paul 


On 9/7/08 10:01 AM, "Brian Owen" <brian_owen AT sfu.ca> wrote:

Hi, everyone.  Do we already have anybody from SPARC participating on this group?  They would certainly be a good way to involve libraries/consortia.  In Canada, we have the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) who negotiate national licenses for electronic resources on behalf of Canada's academic libraries, there are equivalent national agencies elsewhere.  And believe it or not, there exists the International Consortium of Library Consortia (ICOLC):

http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/

I offer some more comments on what could make an open access monographs publishing service very attractive to libraries/consortia and position it in a very distinct way from commercial counterparts.  The "open" focus of these publications makes it very natural and easy to emphasize all of the less restrictive usage and re-purposing options that would be readily available.  Many of the commercial vendors have gone to great lengths to wrap digital rights management software around their content and impose some very arbitrary usage restrictions, e.g. only one viewer per title at the same time, ability to print some/all of the content, and so on.  They also may place restrictions on how this content may be re-purposed in learning management systems, loaded into local institutional repositories, etc.

Library consortia have put considerable effort into developing model licenses for electronic content.  Although these are much better than the boilerplate provided by a vendor, they still represent a compromise on many of the more contentious areas around copyright, drm, etc.  Alternative publishers could help library consortia push these model licenses to be more heavily weighted in favour of libraries and their users.

_____
G.W. Brian Owen
Associate Univ. Libn. Processing & Systems
Simon Fraser University Library
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C.  V5A 1S6
Tel: (778) 782-7095
Email: brian_owen AT sfu.ca


----- Original Message -----
From: "Marta Brunner" <martab AT library.ucla.edu>
To: ohp AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, 8 July, 2008 9:42:06 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [OA-monographs] Exploring financial models

There are folks here at UCLA and in the University of California system who have already started exploring alternative publishing models and the library's potential role in such endeavors.  I know that reps from the California Digital Library and UC Press have been here on at least a couple occasions to discuss this issue.  I am meeting tomorrow with the UCLA Library Scholarly Communication Steering Committee and would be happy to raise David's question about the best ways to involve libraries/consortia.  Marta  **************** Marta L. Brunner, Ph.D. Librarian for U.S./U.K. Literature and Comparative Literature, U.S./U.K. History and the History of Technology 11360D Charles E. Young Research Library UCLA - Box 951575 Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Tel: 310-825-1249 Fax: 310-825-3777 martab AT library.ucla.edu http://courseweb.lis.uiuc.edu/~m.brunner/portfolio.html  http://blogs.library.ucla.edu/literature/  ________________________________ From: ohp-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Barbara Cohen Sent: Tue 7/8/2008 8:21 AM To: davido AT openhumanitiespress.org; ohp AT lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [OA-monographs] Exploring financial models There are a couple of librarians here who are very active in open access issues.  They met Sigi and Gary when they were visiting here.  I can pass along information to them and ask for a participatory role. Sigi, let me know the best way to proceed.  For example, do you want to invite them into this formally? Or . . . ? Best, Barbara _______________________________________________ OHP mailing list OHP AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ohp
_______________________________________________ OHP mailing list OHP AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ohp

---

_______________________________________________
OHP mailing list
OHP AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ohp