Itahka S+R Issue Brief Meeting Researchers Where They Start: Streamlining Access to Scholarly Resources by Roger Schonfeld

FYI. I think we are all aware of these problems but I like how simply the author states and lists them.

http://sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/files/SR_Issue_Brief_Meeting_Researchers_Where_They_Start_032615.pdf
By Roger Schonfeld. (15 pages)

“On finding an article one would like to read that is available online and licensed by one’s library, a researcher should never have to click seven, ten, or a dozen times, as is completely common today when working off-campus, to gain access to an article that, even so, cannot be read comfortably on a small screen. Let alone to click so many times only to find the article is not available through one’s university library! Some of these problems are driving researchers away from using licensed e-resources and towards materials that are available on the open web, although others are encountered equally with open access providers as well. As an information ecosystem, libraries, content providers, and intermediaries, are collectively failing to meet the needs of their users.”

This article claims that libraries are failing in 6 ways:

1. The library is not the starting point.
2. The campus is not the work location.
3. The proxy is not the answer.
4. The index is not current.
5. The PC is not the device.
6. User accounts are not well implemented.

Issues to consider when we are talking to vendors and publishers.