[KS] full-text services

Frank Hoffmann hoffmann at koreaweb.ws
Thu Jun 20 09:48:31 EDT 2013


Professor Walraven wrote:
>> AKSE has talked to representatives of the database services, but 
>> the response was rather negative. Apparently they wanted o stick 
>> to delivery to specific IP addresses (…)

It is certainly true that the large players such as JSTOR, ProQuest, 
ABC-CLIO, Gale, LexisNexis, and others are hesitant to set up access to 
their services through non-government and non-university customers if 
hefty fees cannot be charged. It may also not be the best way to 
approach them one by one. What I would suggest--maybe you at least 
consider this ("you" is AKSE here)--is to establish a kind of 
"sub-account" for AKSE members (or/and others, that would certainly 
need to be discussed) to a main subscriber, such as the Korea 
Foundation, the Academy of Korean Studies, or whatever Korean 
institution might be willing to cooperate. Those technical issues, such 
as the access limitation to certain IPs, are really not a serious issue 
at all! Just to the opposite: there is no problem channelling access to 
a certain IP, or a small pool of IPs assigned to an institutional 
server; that will then simply be part of the sign-in process (is 
already done so by very many institutions, and since a long time). As 
far as the bibliographic/full-text reference providers are concerned, 
they will only see one IP (or a hand full of IPs in the same sub-net). 
As an example: what Dr. Benjamin Joinau pointed out for EHESS is either 
just due to the 'sluggishness' of the tech people there, or it is a 
limitation in the contract with whatever providers they have signed up 
with (if the second, then one wonders why it works elsewhere). In 
short, remote access from private computers is no technical problem 
whatsoever, and to create such a setup that allows this is easily done. 
As far as I can see, it would be a matter of 'willingness' and of a 
legal solution, and of approaching an institution that would want to 
help with this. Naturally, I think, such an institution would easier to 
be found in Korea. 


Best wishes,
Frank 


--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws




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