Bronte beach

Bronte beach, a photo by markfchristopher on Flickr.

Come back summer.

Open Access and Alternative Medicine Research

research (Photo credit: suttonhoo)

I recently tried to tell a story from my experience about why Open Access is important but failed to get the whole story across to the people because of a number of factors as often is the case certain prejudices about private colleges in inner Sydney got in our way also this was at my work so.. interruptions took us away to other pressing issues. 

So I have decided to do a blog about the problems that some people encounter accessing information who are doing real research for example through a private college teaching alternative modalities (this was before universities in Australia recognised alternative medicines in any way (1994), such as Naturopathy but their place of study does not have the resources for them to access the journals and articles they need to write a major final year paper on echinacea. 

As my example takes place many years ago the journal articles that the student needs to access are still in paper form and luckily several universties hold copies of these in their collections. The student goes to the university library  gathers her journals and copies the articles she wants to cite in her work and all ends well with what is seen by the students lecturer as ground breaking research paper on echinacea and asks that the paper be submitted to a well respected alternative medicine journal where it is published.

Lets now place the same student in our digital world of 2013 writing the same paper the problems that are now presented to that student to access the articles she needs:

• The journals and articles needed to complete the research are now only available electronically and due to licencing restrictions by the publishers that the university library have been forced to agree to make these resources only accessible by students and staff who are members of the universities.

Does the story end here yes it does unless someone breaks the law and gives the student copies of the articles they need they are pretty much stuffed.

Here is a good video that also demonstrates the point well.

The talk by the man who invented the web

Al gore, Tim Berners-Lee na CPBR4 (Photo credit: campuspartybrasil)

A short Storify from the talk by

Sir Tim Berners Lee.

Sydney Town Hall is alive.

sydney town hall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Storify iPad 앱 업데이트… >_< ye~~~ (Photo credit: 편집장)

Things that are no longer here

English: Main atrium of the State Theatre, Sydney (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marcel Marceau (Photo credit: phoenixdiaz)

Mime Marcel Marceau, 06/16/1977 ARC Identifier: 175193 NLC-WHSP-C-01769-34 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marcel Marceau as Bip the Clown

Regent Theater Sydney

I was once again lucky enough to see Marcel Marceau in the wonderful Regent Theatre in Sydney before it was destroyed leaving behind some crappy new architecture. The interior was probably comparable if not better then the State Theater in Sydney. 

I know mime has been sent up over the years but i cannot believe anyone who experienced this man performing live would walk away unmoved.

Vivid Sydney

Vivid Sydney, a photo by markfchristopher on Flickr.

Great evening!

A wet Angel Place, Sydney, 1930s / Sam Hood

A wet Angel Place, Sydney, 1930s / Sam Hood, a photo by State Library of New South Wales collection on Flickr.

what a cool pic