Not replying for Eric but I hope he doesn't mind me butting in too..

As a newcomer to (academic) libraries from a software background, some
of the things that first struck me were;

1. The amount of money spent on non-free stuff means it has to be
emphasized over free stuff in publicity to try to get the usage to
justify the spend

2. It is hard to justify spending time on improving access to free stuff
when the end result would be good for everyone, not just the institution
doing the work (unless it can be kept in a consortium and outside-world
access limited)

3. Bizarre (to me) academic attitudes to free stuff feed through to
libraries: many academic seem to feel that wikipedia should be blocked
rather than improved, for example.

Graham



On 05/19/11 06:30, Karen Coyle wrote:
> Quoting Eric Hellman <[log in to unmask]>:
> 
>> Exactly. I apologize if my comment was perceived as coy, but I've
>> chosen to invest in the possibility that Creative Commons licensing is
>> a viable way forward for libraries, authors, readers, etc. Here's a
>> link the last of a 5 part series on open-access ebooks. I hope it
>> inspires work in the code4lib community to make libraries more
>> friendly to free stuff.
> 
> Eric,
> 
> In what ways do you think that libraries today are not friendly to free
> stuff?
> 
> kc
> 
>>
>> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2011/05/open-access-ebooks-part-5-changing.html
>>
>>
>> On May 18, 2011, at 7:20 PM, David Friggens wrote:
>>
>>>>> Some ebooks, in fact some of the greatest ever written, already
>>>>> cost less
>>>>> than razor blades.
>>>
>>>> Do you mean ones not under copyright?
>>>
>>> Those, plus Creative Commons etc.
>>
> 
> 
>