What does free, full-text, electronic, desktop access to academic publications mean to me? In a word, everything. I’m keenly aware of that right now because some technical problem or bureaucratic decision at Boston University has temporarily disabled that access. In effect, I’m flying blind, trying to advance my research without a key navigational instrument. It’s irritating and a drag on productivity.
What does it mean to you? To most readers, nothing at the moment. I’ve got enough posts in the queue and papers in my files to keep my stack of reading full and typical research-based blogging going for a week or two. If the problem isn’t straightened out in that time span, then you’ll suffer with me.*
To a few of you it may mean a tad bit more. I might ask you to send me papers. Now you know why.
* Under a very liberal definition of “suffer.”
