UM: Online Publishing

A recent Atlantic Monthly column reports on the Research Works Act, legislation being considered in Congress and backed by the Association of American Publishers that would bar federal agencies from putting privately published articles into an online database. The article quotes from a 2008 blog post by Paul Courant, dean of libraries for the University of Michigan. Courant, referencing an earlier version of the bill, wrote: “The people of the United States pay good money to learn about the world. It would be a travesty if Congress decided that the interests of a few publishers were more important than the research investments of the American public, and that’s exactly what this bill would do.” [Source]