[Open Access News] U.S. libraries call for public access

[Gavin Baker]

American Library Association and Association of College and Research Libraries response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy consultation on public access, January 12, 2010.

... The ALA and ACRL have long believed that ensuring public access to the fruits of federally funded research is a logical, feasible, and widely beneficial goal. ...

All federal agencies funding significant research should adopt public access policies. This is important in a wide variety of disciplines, as new research in many fields can have an immediate impact on the public good. It is also necessary to establish consistent expectations and conditions for the management of grants and resulting output, saving institutions and principal investigators valuable time.

Based on the initial experience of low manuscript deposit rates under a voluntary NIH Public Access Policy, mandatory policies are necessary to ensure compliance and routine uptake of such submissions.

We urge a short embargo period and recommend a 6-month maximum to bring U.S. policy into alignment with policies already in place in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. ...

The authorized repository should provide support for converting the file to a standard mark-up language, such as the currently preferred XML, if the file is not submitted in that format. PDF, a document format in ubiquitous use, does not support robust searching, linking, text-mining, or reformatting over the long-term, nor does it provide full accessibility for the blind and reading impaired. ...

Also see the press release.

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Posted By Gavin Baker to Open Access News at 1/14/2010 05:30:00 PM