Dear Prof. Harnad, I very much appreciate your including me in the American Scientist Open Access Forum. I continue to follow this discussion with great interest.
Although there are many benefits from OA, I am particularly interested in the impact OA would have on educational and economic development in transitional societies. When I had the opportunity to visit some university libraries in India and Africa, it was clear to me that they could never catch up with the library world as we used to know it in the US and Europe. Without continuous air-conditioning, paper disintegrates amazingly quickly. And even with reliable air-conditioning, the library resources that so many American and European university libraries take for granted are beyond their financial reach. Obviously, having materials available electronically solves much of the first problem (if you need a print copy, it's much easier to maintain adequate climate control for a small room with a set of printers than for an entire library) and the more OA there is, the more rapidly the second problem is addressed. I also wonder, however, if at least transitionally, we might need a sort of global OhioLINK to facilitate sharing those electronic resources that are not yet OA and providing access to materials that are not available electronically. (OhioLINK is the state-wide consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries along with the State Library of Ohio). In these complicated and troubled times, I cannot think of a better project than for the rich countries to give their intellectual capital away in order to raise the level of education and development around the world. OA is a vital step in that direction and I applaud you for your dedication to its realization. Best regards, Sharon ************************************* Sharon S. Brehm Professor of Psychology Indiana University Bloomington sbr...@indiana.edu