Professor Brian Norton:

The Deputy's observation is correct but with one caveat. The information generated, for example, within DIT is available for fair use within DIT. The intellectual property, inventions or discoveries, etc. within an institution are available but access to research conducted and published in journals by other institutions would be subject to copyright agreements. In terms of copyright agreements, there are then agreements in terms of what constitutes fair use of copies etc. We pay to the agencies that supervise that area a fee to enable provision of copies free of charge. The model is right. The business of publishers is essentially to take in input provided by researchers. As the Deputy indicated researchers do need to place their work in the journals because there is no point doing research unless it is communicated. Publishers make their money by selling that research to other libraries. The material generated within an institution is still available within that institution but the Deputy is correct in terms of what she said regarding access to information elsewhere. That is a universal global issue. There are journals that provide various levels of free access, such as gold access, green access, etc. For example, DIT has an institutional repository such that fair use of all information that is produced in DIT would be freely available to colleagues and students.