academia.edu On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 1:59 PM, Mike Cherba <[email protected]> wrote:
> Keith, > I've had good luck with google scholar. Very often there is a free > version of the paper posted on the author's website. And google Scholar is > good about ferreting them out. On the rare occasions when I can't track a > legal free copy of a paper down, I ask a friend who is in academe to obtain > the paper for me. > > That being said, I understand your worry about the ability of things to > get "lost" conveniently. But I tend to put my trust in projects like the > old Many Copies Keep Things Safe project. I know of no researcher who > wants their hard work to disappear, and they all keep copies of the > original work. If for nothing else, then for when they have to present or > are job hunting. > -Mike > > > On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 1:49 PM, Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > I'm just back from a weekend conference and a few days in the > > San Jose / Palo Alto area, which I had intended to spend doing > > research in the Stanford libraries. Stanford used to have the > > best physics/technical library on the West Coast. > > > > Perhaps they still do, if you are a student or professor, have > > access to their electronic books, and can do proper research with > > one screen at a time. But their hard science book library is now > > only 8 rows of 24 feet of shelving, with 95% of their collection > > in offsite storage. Stanford has "less on the floor" than Portland > > State University (or San Jose State, now the south bay leader). > > > > Journal articles are institutional subscription, or $35 per article > > for outsiders. Portland State is the same deal, except many of the > > same journals are still on PSU shelves. > > > > In the quest for "convenience", universities are surrendering their > > freedom to the four big academic monopolies. When paper versions > > disappear, you can bet that the monopolies will raise prices until > > the universities have to choose between academic staff and online > > access. With the DMCA protecting publishers, who's to stop them? > > > > For now, Oregon Health Sciences University, Washington State, and > > the University of Washington still permit visitors access to their > > online collections, but this is expensive and could disappear. > > Worse, common-mode information system vulnerabilities at the big > > four could wipe out much of the academic corpus. If the lights > > are blinking on a backup drive during a restore, is that actually > > a restore, or an erasure? > > > > Yes, electronic journals are convenient. But copies should be > > widely distibuted: purchase the content once, watermarked perhaps, > > and keep a copy on your local institutional hardware, forever. > > > > If the publishes insist on monopoly custody, or even monoculture > > software and hardware, then they should operate their monopolies > > subject to capital punishment (!) for executives and stockholders if > > they irretrievably lose civilization's crown jewels. Those will be > > a fraction of the lives that will be lost if this vital information > > disappears. > > > > Aaron Schwartz died for our sins. We're next. > > > > Keith > > > > -- > > Keith Lofstrom [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > > PLUG mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > > > > > -- > “There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make > it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is > to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first > method is far more difficult.” ― C.A.R. Hoare > <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/266154.C_A_R_Hoare> > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
