[Taxacom] ZooBank reality check [ Scanned for viruses ]

[Paul Kirk]

Google is free to use ... and is highly valued by users; people in ivory
towers will never understand what goes on outside those towers ... and
what of those who cannot subscribe due to economic reasons? I would
never publish anything in a journal with such a policy.

I'm sure we are all aware of wealthy people who buy works of art and
keep them locked in bank vaults ... for what? The primary systematic
literature must be made available free to the end user.

Not much experience of things in copyright (have focussed on
historically important works out of copyright) but a specialist Society
with a journal can be approached with a request for permission to scan
up to, for example, the last 10 years. This should protect the income
stream which for many Societies is their life blood. To their credit,
the Mycological Society of America (as one of a growing number) has
agreed to this. Get a few on board and the rest will more than likely
follow suit for fear of the 'name and shame' list.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Mesibov
Sent: 07 September 2006 10:48
To: TAXACOM
Cc: Hallan, Joel (biocat)
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] ZooBank reality check [ Scanned for viruses ]

Re the fungi and ant scanning/distributing projects:

A leading authority in my field, who edits a specialist journal, has
flatly
refused to allow the journal to be made available in PDF form. He wrote:

"Not sympathetic with the idea of making the contents (text) available
free
to everybody in the world. Over the years I have paid for over half the
printing and postal costs, and work on the principle that people do not
value anything that is free. I think that users should shoulder some of
the
cost of production, even if only a few actually ever buy parts or
subscribe
to the thing by volume."

A second authority also refuses to let his published work be digitised.
Further, after I had scanned a large number of his illustrations (vital
in
this particular group's taxonomy) and formatted them for a taxonomic
website, I was told by the authority that he didn't want them to be used
in
this way. He regards some uses of his work as outright plagiarism and
wants
taxonomists and others to go to his original publications.

I'm wondering whether something similar has happened in the ant and
fungi
literature digitising, and if so, how these gaps in the digitised
literature
are handled by your bibliographic portals.
---
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
and School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195

Tasmanian Multipedes
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/zoology/multipedes/mulintro.html
Spatial data basics for Tasmania
http://www.utas.edu.au/spatial/locations/index.html
---


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