Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal December 2006 Volume 4(6)

Endpiece

Hieroglyphics

Brian Osborne suggests that access to some information is becoming restricted with the growth of resources online.

I returned from a fortnight amid the pyramids and temples of sunny Egypt to a very wet and windy Kirkintilloch to find among the mail the October Information Scotland – which meant that my Endpiece was due. The freedom to write what you want in this space is wonderful, but the remit that Colin Will and I share – to reflect on the grey area between libraries and the wider world of books and writing – can at times be ever so slightly woolly. Fortunately I had a topic at the back of my mind and was encouraged to read a number of articles in the last issue of Information Scotland that seemed to relate to it.

As somebody who has now jumped the counter to be a user of libraries rather than a librarian, I have watched with interest and excitement the development of online information sources and have argued with friends and other writers, who often saw the advent of computers in libraries as the death-knell of books, that both types of provision were needed. However as a subscription-paying member of a university library I have become increasingly concerned by the increasing tendency of such libraries to substitute printed sources with online sources. Of course this is frequently a huge improvement – anyone who has struggled with the old printed Index to The Times and its deeply illogical choice of index terms would not want to turn their back on the ease of use and comprehensive search facilities of the Times Digital Archive and the online access to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is infinitely better and richer than the printed version.

So far, so good. However there is a huge amount of information that is now locked up in online sources that are not publicly available and which is not freely available in traditional print versions. University Libraries offer an exciting and growing range of journals, databases and online sources which are available to faculty and students but not to other users, not even to registered readers. Quite clearly university libraries exist to serve staff and students but they also have a responsibility to a wider community. Independent scholars, researchers, writers and indeed the general public who have a need for access to these sources are becoming increasingly disenfranchised by this move to digital only provision of material which is unlikely to be found in the public library.

I was intrigued to read in Ivor Lloyd’s Presidential Address a reference to Worcester’s integration of a public and a university library – it would be interesting to know if the licensing arrangements which restrict database access to staff and students have been overcome in this case or whether this integration only takes places at the level of access to books and buildings.

If, as a nation, we believe in equal access to information and to the concept of ‘Digital Scotland’ then surely these issues need to be addressed with some urgency. The problem is here and now and will only become more acute as more and more institutions switch from print to online sources.

Whose job is it to ensure that a researcher who is not a member of staff of a university can get access to these password-controlled databases, journals and online sources? I might feel that as I pay a substantial annual fee to a university library that this should buy me access – but it doesn’t and neither does it address the issue of access for those who cannot afford to pay. Should the universities negotiate less restrictive licenses, accept their duty to a wider community and pick up the additional cost of such licenses? Could the information owners and vendors accept that the substantial payments they have received should at least allow wider on-site access to these sources? Should the Government meet the cost as part of its commitment to wider access and the digital future? More questions than answers – but answers there will have to be if we do not wish to create a two-tier, two-speed information society.

The monuments of Ancient Egypt are covered in hieroglyphics – literally ‘sacred writing’ – a script and a language used and understood only by a priestly class. Secular documents were written in another, demotic, script – I would not want to push the analogy too far but it does seem as if there is a very real danger of us denying access to essential online information to those outside the new ‘priestly class’ of academics and students.

Brian D Osborne

Information Scotland Vol. 4(6) December 2006

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.