|
|
|
|||||
              Return to Table of Contents I therefore find it a little chilling to consider that university libraries ... are increasingly restricting the public’s digital access to resources such as the Journal of American Folklore (JAF), just at the point when some are canceling their subscriptions to print versions of journals that their students and faculties can access online.
New York Folklore Society P.O. Box 764 Schenectady, NY 12301 518/346-7008 Fax 518/346-6617 nyfs@nyfolklore.org |
PUBLICATIONS | VOICES | BACK ISSUES | FOLKLORE IN ARCHIVES | FOLK ARTISTS SELF-MGT | ORDER PUBLICATIONS | SEARCH  Why should we care about the digital revolution in scholarly publishing? Because some of the changes in how journals are distributed are inadvertently limiting public access to folklore scholarship, just when the Internet is enabling us to broaden it. In this article I explain why public access to folklore scholarship is especially critical, and I provide information to help those without university affiliations access the growing number of folklore articles available in digital formats. I will follow this introductory essay with others exploring a variety of folklore e-resources. Several years ago I set out to make public folklorists more aware of the many relevant folklore resources available through an entirely new medium: electronic journal databases. The technical details on access to these databases may be dry, but the real story here is about people and about access to our cultural heritage. To get this point across, I’m taking a personal approach, relating a couple of stories along the way, and even asking readers for a little help with ongoing research. Wayne Henderson Visits the Library of Congress I first met Wayne Henderson when I was volunteering at the 1977 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. He was demonstrating guitar making, a skill for which this gifted Virginia craftsman and musician would receive a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts almost twenty years later. The day after the festival, Wayne showed up at the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Culture, looking for a recording made about forty years before. Wayne had always heard that his dad’s fiddling was included on a recording held by the Library of Congress. The family story went that this recording, made by one of the Lomaxes at Walter’s home in Rugby, Virginia, featured E. C. and Orna Ball, who were performing on the porch. The recording had also incidentally captured Wayne’s father, Walter Henderson, who was at the same time playing in an oldtime string band session inside the house. Because I was working as an intern at the archive the day Wayne visited, I was able to watch Joe Hickerson and Gerry Parsons, then archive head and the archive’s reference librarian, search diligently for this recording and make arrangements to send Wayne a copy. This incident—seeing Wayne show up at the archive and, far from his home in Grayson County, Virginia, find an important piece of his family history— made a big impression on me. I think at least in part because of this early experience, I have always held our discipline to a higher standard for public access to our materials— and, actually, I haven’t often been disappointed. The Internet has made it much easier for people like Wayne to find materials and for folklorists to provide more opportunities for things to be found. If Wayne were looking for the recording at the Library of Congress today, he could start his search over the Internet at home, using the archive’s online finding aids to begin identifying the specific material. Even those who don’t have computers or who don’t know how to use the Internet can get help with their research at most public libraries. Wayne was looking for a recording and not a journal article, and I know the public is often more interested in recordings of music than scholarship about it. Still, I’ve always held on to the belief that most people who really want to should be able, in theory, to walk into a university library and read what folklorists have written about them. I therefore find it a little chilling to consider that university libraries (where the lion’s share of publicly accessible print copies of scholarly journals have historically resided) are increasingly restricting the public’s digital access to resources such as the Journal of American Folklore (JAF), just at the point when some are canceling their subscriptions to print versions of journals that their students and faculties can access online. JAF annual print subscriptions (not including individual memberships) are down about one-quarter from historic highs; this decline is due in part to the growing number of academic libraries opting to subscribe only to the digital version of the journal. JAF print subscriptions are faring better so far than those of many other academic journals in this regard, so perhaps this decline may level off.
Like many of the problems spawned by the Internet revolution, this unsettling trend—which is governed in large part by market forces—admits no quick fix. The annual fee a university library pays for most online subscription databases is set by the estimated number of “full-time– equivalent” (FTE) faculty and students directly and currently affiliated with the university. Thus, university libraries that allow the public to use these databases usually pay higher annual fees, and with so many databases now obligatory, many universities can’t afford the privilege. Without the income from these subscription fees, many database providers in turn do not have the money to pay the royalties (often based on numbers of articles viewed or downloaded) that support the university presses and other institutions that publish academic journals. Today, if you can walk into a university library, you can often still use the computer terminals to access research databases, including ones containing full-text articles of JAF, even though some of these libraries may have signed agreements restricting use of these databases to current students and faculty. Increasingly, however, database providers are using more sophisticated access management technologies to password-protect these databases, even within subscribing libraries. This is currently the situation at the University of Pennsylvania. While this private university generously allows the public to use the library on weekdays and weeknights, only those with current university IDs are allowed access to the databases. Even some publicly funded state and local academic institutions, which attempt to provide public access as a matter of policy, can only afford to provide faculty and student access to subscription databases, if indeed they can afford even that. Public access to research databases is just one small piece of many larger discussions, on subjects such as access to electronic resources, on copyright protection and expansion, on the privatization of knowledge and of culture, on intellectual property rights, and on privacy. These are discussions with which individual folklorists, as well as the American Folklore Society, should remain engaged. These subjects have been addressed in several excellent sessions at American Folklore Society annual meetings, and folklorists are involved in these discussions elsewhere, as well. Public Access to Academic Folklore Scholarship The Internet has brought an unprecedented wealth of detailed cultural material—from almost every conceivable perspective—directly to our computer desktops. These rapidly proliferating online folklore resources have helped me, as well as many others outside academia, fill the gap left by limited access to scholarly resources. The growing public availability of online information on folklore and culture is certainly reason for celebration. In all the hoopla, however, it is easy to overlook the critical resources—for example, academic journal articles—that aren’t available. I’ve had difficulty explaining this gap in Internet information to my public sector colleagues, for to fully grasp what you’re not seeing, you have to actually see it. At a special session on electronic folklore resources given several years ago by David Azzolina, a folklorist and librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, I first learned about JSTOR, Project Muse, and many of the other subscription databases (searchable digital collections) of journal articles that many of my academic colleagues can access, even from home. I was astonished by the opportunities these databases offer interdisciplinary scholars such as folklorists to search by keyword across disciplinary boundaries—and frustrated, of course, that these resources aren’t easily available to me as a folklorist without a university affiliation. In subsequent conversations with colleagues, I discovered that many public sector folklorists aren’t aware of these resources, and moreover, that many folklorists working at universities don’t realize that those outside the academy don’t have the same access. Web-based subscription databases have provided something of a golden age of access to folklore periodicals within academia. According to a recent report, Journal of American Folklore articles have been viewed over 300,000 times on JSTOR since the database’s launch in the mid-nineties. These numbers are even more impressive when considered in relation to JAF’s annual print subscriptions, which at most have totaled 1,200, a respectable figure for an academic journal. Imagine the opportunities—if you don’t already have home access—that being able to look up journal articles from your home computer would allow. Consider, as well, that JSTOR is bringing JAF to many academic libraries that had not previously subscribed to the print version. Jon Lohman and Google Scholar Some colleagues have suggested that I simply find backdoor or ad hoc access to the databases; few realize that this is easier said than done. Jon Lohman, the director of the folk arts program at the Virginia Humanities Council, told me he thought folklorists working outside academia could find a variety of ways to get remote access to these resources and noted that he was sure he could get access through his employer’s close affiliation with the University of Virginia. As it turns out, the University of Virginia library, like many academic libraries, does not extend remote access privileges to Jon’s organization or to other affiliated centers, but only to current university staff, faculty, and students. This really hit home for Jon several months later, when he first checked out Google Scholar, an online academic search engine. Searching his own name just to see what would come up, he found a link to an article that quoted Roger Abrahams, a prominent folklore scholar and Jon’s graduate advisor, saying something about Jon. He was dying to see what Roger had said, but he couldn’t access it! Articles from many folklore journals, including JAF, are not available at any price through Google Scholar, because the databases including these journals don’t offer per’article pricing. Even when a journal article by a folklorist is available for downloading on Google Scholar, the fee is often rather high. For example, one article found on Google Scholar, “Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art,” published by folklorist Gary Alan Fine in the journal Theory and Society in 2003, can be downloaded at kluweronline.com (the publisher’s web site) for $25. This price is comparable to articles cited on Google Scholar. Individuals cannot subscribe to JSTOR or Project Muse. Other databases including JAF offer annual fees aimed at institutional customers, which few individuals can afford; an individual subscription to ProQuest Research Library, for instance, would cost more than ten thousand dollars per year. One exception is the Questia journals database, which unfortunately only includes full-text JAF between 1980 and 1998. Individual subscriptions to this database are $99.95 a year, $19.95 a day, or $5.95 an hour. Like Jon, many of us don’t think about databases until we want access to something specific. My own work in New York City occasionally involves public folklore projects related to cultural groups or art forms I haven’t previously studied. Many assume that everyone in New York City has access to amazing scholarly resources, but most university libraries in the city—even most public university libraries—are closed to the public. Luckily for us, New York Public Library is one of only two public libraries nationwide that subscribes to both JSTOR and Project Muse, two searchable databases that between them include access to most JAF articles, as well as articles in hundreds of other scholarly journals. JSTOR is available on-site at four Manhattan New York Public Library research branches, the closest of which is a forty-minute trip from my home. Of course, many of my public sector colleagues elsewhere face more difficult access problems. Those who live and work in rural areas may have to travel hours to an academic library that is open to the public and has access to journals such as JAF. In addition, many colleagues working at smaller academic institutions, as well as many retired academic colleagues not living near their former academic libraries, lack access to such digitized resources. In many parts of the developing world our colleagues face information access problems of an even greater magnitude. In this introductory article, I’ve limited my focus to public access in the United States. These access problems are hardly new, but then, the relative lack of public access to folklorists’ scholarly work has always saddened me—and not only because I think lack of access to scholarly resources can serve to sharpen the divide between the public and academic segments of our field, can make it harder for folklorists to remain closely engaged in academic discourse while working outside academia, and can potentially limit the quality of research done in the public sector. It is also because the publics we folklorists study and write about surely deserve to have reasonable access to the scholarship we produce, even if they are not the primary audience. For years, folklore as a discipline has done better than many others when it comes to getting our scholarship out to the public and also to getting public recognition for the artists and the art forms we study. The American Folklore Society recently began offering its members digital access to JAF, This development will undoubtedly improve access—to this key journal, at least—for many public sector folklorists, as well as for community scholars and members of the interested public who can afford the annual fees. Calling All Voices Readers: Is the JAF Available at Your Public Library? You may have access to recent JAF articles through your public library! It’s possible that your public library subscribes to one of the lesser-known digital sources for recent JAF articles: databases produced by ProQuest, H. W. Wilson, and OCLC. A lucky few of you may even be able to access recent JAF articles from your home computer. Residents of Westchester County, New York, can access recent JAF articles, via the ProQuest Research Library database, from home using their local public library cards. Most public libraries, however, don’t subscribe to JSTOR and Project Muse, the two best-known digital sources for JAF. JSTOR Arts and Sciences II, a searchable database that includes the entire contents of the Journal of American Folklore before 1998, along with hundreds of other scholarly journals, is available at only eleven public libraries nationwide, just one of which is in New York State. Only two public libraries and four non-academic research libraries nationwide subscribe to Project Muse, which includes recent JAF issues. Of course, a few public libraries subscribe to the print edition of JAF. The Brooklyn Public Library subscribes to JAF, but because of space limitations discards issues after two years. While the Brooklyn Public Library doesn’t offer JAF issues in digital format, a number of public libraries that have never subscribed to JAF in print are now offering digital access to JAF, because they subscribe to particular ProQuest, Wilson, or OCLC databases. I had hoped to create a list of public libraries in New York State that subscribe to these databases, but it has proven to be a difficult task. These for-profit database providers maintain confidential lists of subscribing libraries, and there is no “master list” of New York public libraries subscribing to these resources. What’s worse, many public library web sites require local library bar codes to view even the names of the databases to which they subscribe. Here’s where I’m hoping Voices readers can help. Do you have a public library card? Does it have a bar code number on the back? Please check your local public library’s web site for the electronic databases listed in this article’s table, and e-mail me at condonk@aol.com to let me know if you find them. Most library web sites list databases under terms such as “databases,” “journals,” or “electronic resources.” I would welcome reports from readers with access to academic libraries, as well. In addition, if you happen to find full-text articles of JAF in any databases not listed in the table, please let me know! You see, this particular aspect of my research on folklife e-resources can’t be done by one person living in just one place—I really do need your help! If you participate, you can even say that you participated in a “smart mob.” Howard Rheingold, who coined this term, notes on his web site that “smart mobs emerge when communication and computer technology amplify human talents for cooperation.” I hope to write more about this and other emerging grassroots Internet activities in the future. For now, though, I’m just asking for your help with one collaborative research experiment. I’ll be following this in subsequent issues with a series of shorter columns on particular features of folklore e-resources. I promise to include the results of your research in a future article. In addition to reports on local library databases, I would very much appreciate hearing which aspects of the vast topic of folklore e-resources you would like to read more about. “Folklore E-Resources for All? Why Public Access Matters” by Kathleen Condon was published in Voices Vol. 32, Spring-Summer 2006. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now. HOME | ABOUT NYFS | PROGRAMS & SERVICES | MUSIC | PUBLICATIONS | RESOURCES | CALENDAR | WHAT’S FOLKLORE? | MEMBERSHIP | GALLERY | SHOP |
SEARCH | CONTACT US © 2012, 2011-2006 New York Folklore Society |
||||||
