Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:38:35 +0530 (IST) From: Subbiah Arunachalam Friends: Here is a great book on open access. eter Suber recommends it whole-heartedly. LIS teachers and students might wish to read this and possibly discuss it in the classroom. Policymakers (in higher education, science and technology and university administration) would do well to read this book. Arun ---- John Willinsky's book, The Access Principle John Willinsky's book, The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press, 2005) is now shipping. From the MIT description: In The Access Principle, John Willinsky describes the latest chapter in [an] ongoing story -- online open access publishing by scholarly journals -- and makes a case for open access as a public good. A commitment to scholarly work, writes Willinsky, carries with it a responsibility to circulate that work as widely as possible: this is the access principle. In the digital age, that responsibility includes exploring new publishing technologies and economic models to improve access to scholarly work. Wide circulation adds value to published work; it is a significant aspect of its claim to be knowledge. The right to know and the right to be known are inextricably mixed. Open access, argues Willinsky, can benefit both a researcher-author working at the best-equipped lab at a leading research university and a teacher struggling to find resources in an impoverished high school. Willinsky describes different types of access...discusses the contradictions of copyright law, the reading of research, and the economic viability of open access. He also considers broader themes of public access to knowledge, human rights issues, lessons from publishing history, and "epistemological vanities." The debate over open access, writes Willinsky, raises crucial questions about the place of scholarly work in a larger world -- and about the future of knowledge. John Willinsky is Pacific Press Professor of Literacy and Technology at the University of British Columbia. Peter Suber says: Congratulations, John. I'm glad to reaffirm my blurb from the jacket: John Willinsky understands the way the Internet changes everything for scholarly communication and has written a clear and compelling defense of open access, both in principle and in practice. I recommend it especially for its treatment of copyright issues and the special situation of scholarly societies and developing countries.