Open Access Day

It's Open Access Day today. I've been at the Australian ARROW Repositories Day, and no-one mentioned it.

Why do I care about Open Access? It's always seemed obvious to me since I first heard of the idea. I've never cared what colour it was, nor how it was done. But I've not published in a toll publication since that day, except for a book chapter where I reserved the rights and put it in the repository. It's fair, it's just; you pay my wages, and you should be able to know what you're getting. But it's easy for me; risk is low, career not at stake, and publishing this way is part of my job. I understand why people with more at stake are more cautious. It's a long road to full acceptance, and we're not doing badly.

Hobbes Leviathan: "the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". Could be a metaphor for open access repositories? Nah. On the other hand, if you start from there, hey, everything begins to look rosy (;-)!

Read some nice posts on various blogs about OA day, some quite long and well-written. I'm keeping this short and nearly empty, like so many repositories. Feels better that way. Sigh...