Open Access to scholarly research for everyone sounds like a great idea. For libraries, open access means being able to buy more scholarly journals – critical to students and faculty who want to do research. The general public also benefits by having improved availability of information. For publishers, however, the question of open access goes right to their bottom line.
ìA big concern is how do we affordably produce materials that can be made open access in ways that protect the quality of the content when you are not going to be compensated for helping to create it in the end," University of New Mexico Press Director John Byram said. "We need to find ways to balance the benefits of open access with how to compensate the professionals who refine and improve the materials that we disseminate.î
College students like the idea of open access textbooks. It's an important affordability issue for students who pay hundreds of dollars for textbooks, items the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship doesn't cover. But Byram says open access textbooks need to be thought through. ìSomewhere along the line, someone is paying the bills,î he said. If students are getting the textbooks for free, it's worth thinking about who paid to allow that to happen. A foundation? A granting agency? Continue>>>
======