[Coral-List] Time to go to a library...

Abigail Moore abigail2105 at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 8 07:11:17 EST 2014


Dear Douglas

I am sure many others also appreciate your post, as I do, and I expect many will be able to access the article you provided the link for in one way or another. 

I would like to make a couple of points.

1. I am afraid that your remark "time to go to a library", while perhaps very apt for many people in developed country campuses, is asking the impossible for many of us (probably the majority of people on this earth right now) with no access at all to a library worthy of the name, let alone one with a subscription to a particular journal (in this case Science). 

For many of us, the internet is our main (often only) library, and a wonderful one it is! This is one modern invention I feel we must fight tooth and nail to preserve and keep open to all. I take this opportunity to thank all the many generous authors, including many coral-listers, who recognise our challenges and provide pdfs of their papers to those of us with no institutional access or physical libraries to fall back on. 

2. Sadly in the case of the article you posted, as in many other cases, I am 99.99999999....% certain only those already convinced of the message being put across will go to the trouble of finding a way past the pay wall, thus resulting in "preaching to the converted" only.

While cutting edge science might be propagated effectively despite paywalls, I find it very hard to believe that articles reaching out to change people's attitudes or to hoping to have any effect on policies and public opinion could succeed when there is such as stiff barrier to overcome before people can actually read them.

In hope... for our reefs and for all our futures...

Abigail

Abigail Moore
Sekolah Tinggi Perikanan dan Kelautan (STPL)
Kampus Madani
Jl Soekarno-Hatta km 6
Palu 94118
Sulawesi Tengah
Indonesia


Message: 7
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2014 21:29:11 -1100
From: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef under
    fire
To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
    <CAOEmEkGuwdi5F-ffxiU4xYcA6xvAAnb_-BgEH+Rdd3bY8OChog at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

abstract in Science magazine (article is not open access, I'm afraid, time
to go to a library):

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6210/683.short

-- 
Douglas Fenner
Contractor with Ocean Associates, Inc.
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA


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