I have been having a somewhat heated conversation with a friend who is a scientist in France. She had asked me as a friend to access a electronic article for her from a journal to which my establishment subscribed but her establishment did not. I pointed out to her why this was not a good idea: as a librarian we are trained to be aware of legal and ethical issues. I explained that her own institution could order it for her.
My friend was very shocked by my attitude. She said that it was important for scientists to be able to access an article immediately before they lost their train of thought and she said that in academia friends helped eachother get resources all the time and nobody had ever challenged her before. She said she had never had to pay to order a journal article in her life [in France.] This speaks much for the French government's support for academic research.
Of course, I knew that people sent articles to each other illegally, but I assumed it was the exception rather than the norm. Suddenly I am wondering if the document delivery service that we see in the library only represents a small proportion of all the documents flying too and fro across the galaxy by informal methods.
I was further challenged by the article "Publishers allow more than authors think" in this month's Information World Review (p.1), which pointed out that most publishers do indeed allow authors to provide copies to collegues (note it does not say friends,) as well as to incorporate material into their own work and use it in course packs. The article is based on the recent ALSP report Scholarly Publishing Practices 3. Another report on the subject is available from the publishers research council
My friend was very shocked by my attitude. She said that it was important for scientists to be able to access an article immediately before they lost their train of thought and she said that in academia friends helped eachother get resources all the time and nobody had ever challenged her before. She said she had never had to pay to order a journal article in her life [in France.] This speaks much for the French government's support for academic research.
Of course, I knew that people sent articles to each other illegally, but I assumed it was the exception rather than the norm. Suddenly I am wondering if the document delivery service that we see in the library only represents a small proportion of all the documents flying too and fro across the galaxy by informal methods.
I was further challenged by the article "Publishers allow more than authors think" in this month's Information World Review (p.1), which pointed out that most publishers do indeed allow authors to provide copies to collegues (note it does not say friends,) as well as to incorporate material into their own work and use it in course packs. The article is based on the recent ALSP report Scholarly Publishing Practices 3. Another report on the subject is available from the publishers research council
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