Entitlement

[gfish]

I have a ridiculous feeling of entitlement to information. I just had to go to the physical library to pick up physical copies of 1980 and 1993 articles. (Online access only goes back to 1995 for this journal.) The whole thing was a field trip to the 20th century. You can't check out periodicals, and they didn't have a scanner, so now I have a stack of minimally-useful potential paper cuts on my desk. You can only pay for the copy cards with cash, and they don't have an ATM. The whole thing made me quite angry. Which is ridiculous, of course, to expect that the full sum of human knowledge be instantly available from the comfort of my own laptop.

But still... the new way is better in every way. I can't really feel guilty for enjoying and internalizing the realities of new technology. Was someone complaining about book store selection in the century after Gutenberg ridiculous? This isn't just about personal comfort, this is about removing an barrier of access to information. That's a noble goal, one with plenty of work left to be done on it. So, grrr, I say, grrr! My rage might be a bit ridiculous, but so is having to make physical copies of data in 2009.

Comments

[maribou]

Were you already talking to the subject librarian for your subject? If not, may I suggest contacting them directly? http://toby.library.ubc.ca/libstaff/subjectlibrarians.cfm . There's also a feedback page specifically for e-Resource stuff (it seems more geared to questions but it explicitly says "comments" as well): http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/forms/ejournalhelp.html

Also, if you look at the web page for the journal that DOES go back to 1995, there is probably a web contact link for the journal database people themselves (you may have to dig a bit, but I just went and looked up some random journals, and they DID have publisher contact info), where you could urge them to put further backissues online. (And if they say "well, they are online, your school doesn't pay for them" you can say "well, how the jeezly much are you charging for them?" AND suggest to the subject librarian that you, at least, would find having further back issues available worth the $$$.)

Not trying to be obnoxious, just ... if this really does bother you there is stuff to do that is less extreme than abolishing copyright and more useful than harrying the person working the desk.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I think it is reasonable to feel frustrated that there are few ways to (politely, respectfully, non-confrontationaly) express my dissatisfaction with the appointed representative for a system with which I have a complaint. It's a generic problem with modern organizations, simply due to their size and hierarchical structure. Telling me to go home and look up a specialized complaint line isn't very satisfying, as of course very few people are going to do it. Which means that most complaints never get heard, which is systemically counter-productive to getting things fixed. I'm left either feeling at the mercy of a system which obviously doesn't want to hear my concerns, or feeling like a jerk for burdening some random low-level worker. I think it's a general cause of friction in our society that we haven't found a better way to deal with this situation.

It may sound pretentious, but I think there is value to this kind of whinging. One, well, it's kind of fun, and this is just a silly blog in the end. But two, it helps me clarify and explore my own position, and hopefully further the dialog about what we're going to do about information access as a society. We are facing a point where a good chunk of a generation is treating copyright law as seriously as they do drug prohibition. That's a fairly serious situation and it didn't have to be this way.

(And no, the publisher only provides 1995 and past. And at the risk of pushing this conversation even farther afield, I feel very little desire to negotiate with people holding information -- particularly academic papers! -- hostage like that. They've made their position quite clear through their actions. Assuming they aren't already scanned, they could ask Google to scan the backlog and it would be done pretty damned quick. If they weren't so intent on maintaining their artificial and doomed monopoly, that is.)

[maribou]

Hm. I don't think I meant "negotiate" with the publisher so much as "cuss out" the publisher, although rereading what I said, I can see how that came across wrong. I wasn't sure if part of your frustration was that the library should do whatever it takes to GET those backfiles, even if it costs them dollars they don't (think) they have to spare from other stuff - which either digitizing or purchasing more things from the publisher would cost them a significant amount. I get very twitchy about "just give everything to Google" since Google is trying to be just as controlling as everyone else, limiting access under their proposed settlement to one terminal per library & etc. I'm much more heartened by things SOME publishers are doing like allowing us to share all our Springer e-books between consortial members - a consortium which includes the huge public library systems in Denver... which means that thousands of public library people will be able to quickly get access to digital copies of in-print Springer books for free, without having to leave their homes. Or preview-loan-purchase agreements with major e-book vendors that allow patrons to drive collection decisions. And I'm even more into pushing open access journals, shared CC (or even looser) licensed curricular materials, &c. Most times the librarians are the ones pushing this stuff and the faculty are the ones that don't like the idea, from what I've seen. Maybe UBC is different. Anyway, now I'm just rambling.

Was I really telling you to go home and look up a specialized complaint line? I may be misreading some of your situation because I do work in a small residential college - if you came to me, on the desk, and expressed a desire to talk to someone about our serials collection, I would *walk* you to either your subject librarian, or the serials librarian, or the public services librarian, or the library director if they weren't around, right then and there. But I thought I was saying, "Hey, since you obviously prefer NOT having to go to the physical library, here are some ways to press your case without going there again."

I don't think there is no value to expressing your frustration. As I said above I actually feel the same way a lot of the time. I think what I've said so far has been more about me trying to pursue the questions you raised than to say you shouldn't raise them. And, it's your blog. You're entitled to feel entitled!! (I say things I think are ridiculous all the time, honestly.) But I do think there are things you can do that can (or at least SHOULD) make a difference. I really DO think, from what I've seen, that libraries take patron complaints seriously (especially if it's about policy and not random and seemingly unjustified "this person is mean to me" stuff), and I really DO think it would be worthwhile to communicate at least some of what you've said on here to people at the library who are well situated to bring up what you've said as a concrete example when they are arguing-for-such-and-such in a committee or a meeting or a professional conference. It *would* be better if you could say to random person on the desk "hey, you know, I really have a problem with X" and be sure that said problem would be properly passed up the chain, but honestly most of those front-line people are just trying to make sure the entire system doesn't implode on a daily basis and don't really want to bug their higher-ups with "hey, you know, this patron said we should do this thing that seems vaguely impossible to manage under our budget."

Perhaps I was mistaken in taking your original frustration as pointed *at the library* when really you are more frustrated at the current state of society and I overreacted with all this "well, what about this" stuff. Hopefully even if I've irritated it's helped you to clarify things to yourself to some degree:). I'm responding out of interest and not out of defensiveness, I'm pretty sure.