I think today’s column may be less of a scientific inquiry than a philosophical lament. I’m thinking of libraries, generations of bound scientific journals, and why I no longer inhabit those hallowed stacks.
I have warm happy memories from 1965 of using the psychology library at the University of California to find and study articles on perception. Perception was my research focus as an experimental psychology undergraduate. I’d search Psychology Abstracts for likely articles, then roam the stacks looking for the bound volume, and finally snuggle up with my selection at a nice oak table overlooking the tree-covered Berkeley campus. Sheer literary luxury.
Today’s world is different. Computer-based access is so rich. In the past, I tended to focus my searches on what was physically in that psych library, mostly the Journal of Perception. If my chosen volume was in use, I’d have to wait. If I wanted a volume from another library, I’d fill out an inter-library request form and wait a week or two to get my book. My computer searches today open many more virtual pages. The volume I want is never checked out by someone else, almost every journal in the world is available on-line, and even automatically translated into English. Finally, free and open access to research findings is both convenient and very, very important. Science has always been about the pursuit of knowledge and using that understanding to make the world a better place. Placing research findings in public is the finest way to further those goals. It is the pervasiveness of the Internet that has made this era of wider access possible. How totally convenient is all of that?
So, a little bit of Heckle and Hide here. I’m praising the free, virtual availability of scientific journals on my iPad BUT lamenting the loss of the warm and cozy physical library reading room. If you miss hanging out in the cozy, booky world of a real library, Second Life has an option. It is the Virtual Community Library.
I wanted to say: It is a real virtual library, but that sounded like an oxymoron. A better choice of words is: It is a functioning, practical library in a virtual environment. There are also nice chairs, a coffee machine, and a fireplace. What more could one want.
Happy New Year. Affirming 2025 will bring each of you good things.
Resources
- Link to the library’s website and location in Second Life – Main Library (Second Life).
- U.S. science funding agencies roll out policies on free access to journal articles:NIH and DOE are first to act, with implementation by all set to begin by end of 2025, Jeffery Brainard, Science, December 2024.
- The big idea: should we get rid of the scientific paper?, Stuart Ritchie, The Guardian, April 2022.
- The changing roles of scientific journals, Arturo Casadevall et al, American Society for Microbiology, October 2024.
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