tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post5627237889467094669..comments2024-03-16T18:42:21.178-07:00Comments on DSHR's Blog: Ithaka Does A Good ThingDavid.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-6836781343727972682011-09-12T09:12:12.293-07:002011-09-12T09:12:12.293-07:00Stuart Shieber comments on Ithaka's release of...Stuart Shieber comments on <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2011/09/08/jstor-opens-access-to-out-of-copyright-articles/" rel="nofollow">Ithaka's release of some public domain material</a>. He attributes it to JSTOR; I think it is important to be clear that JSTOR and Portico are simply product lines of Ithaka, rather than independent organizations.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-13320896107121407212011-09-09T12:24:21.322-07:002011-09-09T12:24:21.322-07:00Yesterday, Ithaka moved to address concerns among ...Yesterday, Ithaka moved to <a href="http://about.jstor.org/news-events/news/jstor-announces-arts-sciences-x-lower-fees-and-new-flexible-payment-options" rel="nofollow">address concerns among librarians about the cost of their subscriptions</a> in two ways. They announced a new <i> Arts & Sciences X</i> collection with lower charges, and a way to spread the initial cost of subscribing to a set of collections over 10 years.<br /><br />Of course, this doesn't affect the argument of this post, which is about individual rather than institutional access.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-12361112603250237262011-09-09T08:20:57.527-07:002011-09-09T08:20:57.527-07:00Yes, Ithaka/JSTOR has been doing a bad thing for a...Yes, Ithaka/JSTOR has been doing a bad thing for a long time in blocking access to public domain material. I know they add some value to it, but the price has been outrageous. Having recently (as you know) left academia for the private world, I find the single article prices absurd, and I am certain that, as you say, they exist not to earn money directly but to sustain subscriptions. But I don't think I could get a JSTOR subscription if I tried!<br /><br />Even worse is ISO. I needed to look at a small number of ISO standards with relevance to risk assessment yesterday, in order to know whether I should reference them in a piece I'm writing. Total bill would have been around a thousand Swiss Francs! ISO gets a bit less than half its secretariat budget from sales (probably a tenth of its total budget), and the exclusionary business model resulting probably cuts its effectiveness by a couple of orders of magnitude! Grrr.Chris Rusbridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06087447503626434385noreply@blogger.com