Comments on: AAA: a little bit Open Access, a little bit closed http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/aaa-a-little-bit-open-access-a-little-bit-closed/ Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:11:25 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: enkerli http://culturematters.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/aaa-a-little-bit-open-access-a-little-bit-closed/#comment-4711 enkerli Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:03:37 +0000 http://culturematters.wordpress.com/?p=512#comment-4711 Breathtaking! As an anecdote on the need for OA in anthro... Hadn't yet read anything specific about AAA's OA content. Saw some blog posts about the issue and opened those in new tabs.I then started writing a comment about some other anthro-related topic. As I was writing, I wanted to check the date for the seminal seminar in Santa Fe which gave us Clifford and Marcus, 1986 (I'm guessing it's some time in 1984 but I wanted confirmation). My copy of <em>Writing Culture</em> is in a box downstairs. The section of the book which discusses this seminar doesn`t seem to be accessible on Amazon or Google Books. I notice a recent Anthropology Newsletter piece which seems to describe the seminar, so I click on it thinking that AnthroSource had gone OA. No luck. Of course, I could find the information elsewhere. In fact, I could connect to Concordia's (recently set up) VPN to get AnthroSource <em>privileges</em>. But it's such an unnecessary hassle. As finding this information wasn't really important, I basically gave up digging for this specific date. The issue will probably come up again and, by that time, I'll be more willing to find the relevant tidbit. It's just an anecdote. Closed access, in this case, is basically the same level of annoyance as DRM on media files. Nothing to go to the barricades over. But there's a deeper issue, which is much more specific to anthro: we collaborate with people all over the world and many of these people have <em>no</em> access to what we write with/about them. Given the "crisis of representation" which started over 20 years ago and which still seems rather relevant today, why aren't the ethnographers among us talking more about OA for our collaborators, friends, detractors, and larger audience? Is it simply because access to AnthroSource is fairly easy from university offices? Is it because we see AAA membership as a requirement for anyone who wants to work with us? Ah, well... Breathtaking!
As an anecdote on the need for OA in anthro…
Hadn’t yet read anything specific about AAA’s OA content. Saw some blog posts about the issue and opened those in new tabs.I then started writing a comment about some other anthro-related topic.
As I was writing, I wanted to check the date for the seminal seminar in Santa Fe which gave us Clifford and Marcus, 1986 (I’m guessing it’s some time in 1984 but I wanted confirmation). My copy of Writing Culture is in a box downstairs. The section of the book which discusses this seminar doesn`t seem to be accessible on Amazon or Google Books. I notice a recent Anthropology Newsletter piece which seems to describe the seminar, so I click on it thinking that AnthroSource had gone OA. No luck.
Of course, I could find the information elsewhere. In fact, I could connect to Concordia’s (recently set up) VPN to get AnthroSource privileges. But it’s such an unnecessary hassle.
As finding this information wasn’t really important, I basically gave up digging for this specific date. The issue will probably come up again and, by that time, I’ll be more willing to find the relevant tidbit.

It’s just an anecdote. Closed access, in this case, is basically the same level of annoyance as DRM on media files. Nothing to go to the barricades over.
But there’s a deeper issue, which is much more specific to anthro: we collaborate with people all over the world and many of these people have no access to what we write with/about them. Given the “crisis of representation” which started over 20 years ago and which still seems rather relevant today, why aren’t the ethnographers among us talking more about OA for our collaborators, friends, detractors, and larger audience?
Is it simply because access to AnthroSource is fairly easy from university offices? Is it because we see AAA membership as a requirement for anyone who wants to work with us?

Ah, well…

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