All good ideas have problems in their acceptance and implementation. Once
we start the process of conversing these ideas, solutions will follow. I
had suggested this idea to the National Mission on Libraries a few years
back at the ICDL but same response was provided by, if I am not mistaken by
Prof Pental, the chair of NML.
On the one hand we have academic libraries being not utilised to their
potential and on the other hand poor students not able to access libraries.
Even accessing spaces for learning is not possible today, even if academic
libraries are empty during many holidays, Sundays, etc. We should be able
to open academic libraries to needy students if we put our minds to it.
Problems are plenty but will have solutions too.
I know it is a difficult idea but it's time has come.
Regards
H Anilkumar
Librarian, IIMA
On Sat, May 4, 2019, 8:04 PM Koteswara Rao Mamidi
The idea of making academic libraries ‘public’ is good and a welcome move because they are run by ‘public money’ but, there are many problems of management such as reduced seating space and access to limited print reading material by student members, thefts, etc. further, publishers who license electronic resources to academic libraries will not allow others (public) to access their resources freely. Licensing of e-resources to university libraries in India is already problematic due to FTE count. The legal battle between Delhi University and OUP/CUP on free distribution of xerox copies of text books shows that business and scholarship cannot go together. Although this whole idea of ‘openness’ sounds very good it’s implementation in India will certainly create a storm among academicians and publishers.
Dr M Koteswara Rao Retd. Librarian Univ of Hyderabad
Sent from my iPhone
On 04-May-2019, at 10:52 AM, Subbiah Arunachalam < subbiah.arunachalam@gmail.com> wrote:
Should the public be allowed to use an academic institution's library?
When a similar question was asked of University Librarian Jeffrey MacKie-Mason (UC Berkeley), his reply was 'yes.'
*What about for the public?*
We are a public library and, under our license, the public can come to us and access Elsevier articles on-site. A number of people in public health in the Bay Area come here to read journal articles, for example. They will also lose direct access to a 2019 publication.
The main thing for the public to know is that we’re taking a major stand with the power of UC to transform the scholarly journal publishing industry for the benefit of our scholars and the public. We remain in negotiations with other publishers of UC research articles. The industry is not going to change overnight, but we want the public and the world to have access to research — to our UC research — that is funded by the public in the first place. That is core to our mission at the University Library.
-- Arun
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-4658 http://www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9925-2009
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