From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2015 12:39:20 +0000

Hi Ann,

As I understand this, what is being proposed is that the UK
government, or some group acting on its behalf, would negotiate with
publishers to license open access for anyone with a UK-based IP
address.  Thus, instead of paying gold OA changes to open up
individual articles, a national license for open access would provide
open access to entire contents of journals that were included.  This
would eliminate the need for both separate subscriptions for
universities and those individualized APCs, substituting a direct
national subvention of publisher costs.

I see this as one of a variety of proposals to leverage the money
currently spent on subscriptions to support the production of
knowledge and its widespread dissemination.  All of them are very
ambitious, but usually rather vague about how we get from where we are
now to the idealized ecosystem.  In this proposal, "individual
negotiations" about price and access terms with the publishers seems
to me to paint over a huge obstacle.  The alternative suggested, "one
big negotiation" simply boggles the mind.

Kevin L. Smith
Director, Copyright & Scholarly Communication
Duke University Libraries

-----Original Message-----
From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 3 May 2015 10:02:01 -0400

Hello, All:  About a month ago, a URL was circulated for an HEPI
report called, "Open Access:  Is a National License the answer?"

I've read it over a couple of times and don't understand it very well.
Is that because it's aimed at a UK situation that doesn't apply
elsewhere?  How would this work?  If anyone on this list has any
further insights, they would be appreciated.

http://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/openaccess_v3_web.pdf

Thank you, Ann