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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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As someone who has moved from the museum world to the academic world, I think this is an excellent area for growth (dare I say evolution?). There are any number of scholarly databases that science center staff could make excellent use of (JSTOR, MathSciNet, Project Muse, PubMed, Web of Science etc etc) But these things cost subscribers money, sometimes lots of it and based upon what little I know given the potential usage of ALL staff of ALL ASTC members would be really expensive. I'd love to see it, though.
But it goes both ways. Right now ASTC Dimensions is NOT indexed or made available by any of the standard databases, nor are any of the standard museum periodicals with the exception of Curator. (Though even there, incompletely) That is a huge challenge for anyone that needs to find appropriate research or teaching material across several journals if you or your library does not subscribe and few of us can afford to subscribe to all of them.
What we are talking about here is including all museum related literature, including science centers, in the mainstream of scholarly discourse, which includes access to research for science center staff, but it also means our major organs supplying their articles to others via these same outlets. Right now it is very difficult* to do efficient research in Dimensions, The Exhibitionist, all of Left Coast Press's journals including the Journal of Museum Education, (Though I have been told by someone at Left Coast, this is coming) Museum News, History News etc etc etc. Some journals like Visitors Studies, provide search of their journal and downloading individual articles, but you have to go to their website to do it. Others make you browse back issues one at a time and you have to order the entire issue, even if you want one article. This is prohibitively expensive and time consuming if you are under deadline.
Google Scholar helps fill this void a little in finding appropriate articles, but access still requires ordering back issues in many cases, especially, for this list, ASTC Dimensions.
*And by difficult I mean really easy by the standards of my first foray into graduate school ca 1988, but by the standards of 2011 it is very archaic and is, in my opinion, a real barrier to the advancement of our field.
Just my 2 cents.
Matthew White
On Feb 12, 2011, at 2:37 PM, Chris Roman wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
>
> Very interesting proposal, Charlie. I totally support it.
>
> From time to time, over the years I've been at the Saint Louis Science
> Center, we've had agreements with nearby universities that give a small
> number of our staff full online or on-site privileges through their system,
> but the agreements invariably lapse with staff changes. I've found the lack
> of access to journal articles--whether science/tech/ engineering or
> education articles--to be an ongoing challenge, and costly.
>
> I'll be interested in seeing where this discussion goes.
>
> Chris Roman
> Director, Emerging Technologies
> Saint Louis Science Center
> 314-289-4476
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> -----Charlie Carlson <[log in to unmask]> wrote: -----
>
> =======================
> To: [log in to unmask]
> From: Charlie Carlson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 02/12/2011 01:10PM
> Subject: Role for ASTC
> =======================
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> One thing I've often thought about is access to information and scientific
> literature. By enlarge, with the very notable exception of PLoS, museums
> and science centers are treated as if they were commercial or academic
> organizations. Is this a reasonable assumption, we're really kind of a
> hybrid that runs to benefit scientific interest and continued public
> support, and common good most generally.
>
> Museums (with many notable exceptions and prescribed domains) and Science
> Centers don't do scientific research by enlarge (again with notable
> exceptions and domains), yet we primarily convey in non-written form to the
> broader public. I would propose that ASTC explore the possibility of
> including access to scientific literature as benefit and public good that
> publish companies should support. Such access would not diminish the
> demand or need of their primary audiences, the academic and commercial
> scientific markets, and would greatly benefit and improve the flow of
> accurate information from lab to public discussion. It would be a benefit
> to the field.
>
> It seems like such a series of agreement should be negotiated and licensed
> via something like an ASTC membership and even supported by NSF and NIH.
> There is little downside for the publishers of scientific journals and it
> would greatly facilitate professional development and scientific literacy.
>
> Charlie
>
> The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and should in no way be
> construed or attributed to the Exploratorium or related organization, and
> do not represent an institutional position.
>
> Charles Carlson
> Senior Scientist
> exploratorium
> 3601 Lyon St.
> San Francisco, CA 94123
> [log in to unmask]
> Tel: 415-561-0319
> Fax: 415-561-0370
>
>
>
>
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