[Taxacom] Paywall our taxonomic tidbit

[Dr Brian Taylor]

As Fred wrote, those of us who finance our own work are hit by the double
whammy of paying to publish and paying to read. Fine, it is our hobby and we
might also pay to play golf, etc., but the fundamental difference is that
our efforts mostly have a lasting legacy and, if you believe taxonomy is
important, benefit society as a whole. Up to less than 75 years or so ago,
many if not most taxonomists were amateur. Possibly there were fewer of them
but reading between the lines of their papers I find that exchange of
knowledge (using what was known as letter post or mail) must have been quite
common. In a world of easy communication, I find it frustrating that many
people appear to simply ignore emails.

One answer perhaps is to a) join a professional society with a library and,
thus, get quite cheap pdf photocopies, or, b) for local or national
institutions to afford honorary status and library access to the likes of
us.

As a footnote, I thank all those who contributed to my post about
non-recognition/acknowledgement.

Best Wishes,

Brian Taylor


On 18/01/2016, 00:08, "Fred Schueler" <bckcdb at istar.ca> wrote:

> On 1/17/2016 5:41 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> The current system (reader pays
> for what they want to read) has proved workable, sustainable and accessible to
> date!

* except that those of us without institutional connections can't
> afford 
to read anything more than the abstract of commercially "published"
> work 
unless we badger the authors to send out personal copies. This means
> 
that "commercially published" and "samizdat" are synonymous, except for 
the
> public display of the
> abstract.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------

> Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Daily Paintings -
> http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
Vulnerable Watersheds -
> http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills -
> http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G
> 1T0
    on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W

> (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca>
> http://pinicola.ca/
----------------------------------------------------------
> --
_______________________________________________
Taxacom Mailing
> List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/list
> info/taxacom
The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched at:
> http://taxacom.markmail.org

Celebrating 29 years of Taxacom in 2016.