How a Russell Group University terminates a member of staff

I have worked for a large university (member of the much-vaunted Russell Group etc.) since 1999, full-time then the last several years part-time. There is no longer money for part-timers, so my contract runs out this year. I knew that this would mean the end of the easy access to online research resources on which I have depended for so many years, but the impersonal and uncaring way in which this has been notified to me still comes as a revelation.

And why can't long-serving staff (most of whom do not become Emeritus Professors) look forward to continued links with their former employer by being given research access? They could even give the university some publicity through their publications. 

"IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR UNIVERSITY ACCOUNT

IT Services has been informed by Human Resources that your Associate
registration is ending on Tuesday, 24 Jul 2012.

In accordance with current University policy, access to any of the
University's computing resources managed by IT Services, will be
withdrawn on this date. The result of this will be that your University
username and password will no longer work and you will no longer have
access to your email account."

Academics don't publish for free - they pay to publish

I have an article being published in a great online academic journal in the autumn. I need to use an illustration for it which although out of copyright is held by a national art gallery. Because I don't have any funding, the gallery has very generously waived the 50 euro fee for reproducing this picture, but I must still pay for the image to be scanned and sent, together with VAT. This is a typical situation. When publishing my book Riverscapes and National Identities the costs to me personally were considerable - and some picture owners charged unreasonable rates, given that the book is not the kind that will ever make a profit.
If you have similar experiences why not comment below?

Durham University offers online research facilities to alumni and retired staff

"Durham University Library is delighted to offer University alumni and retired staff access to JSTOR, working in partnership with the University's Alumni Relations Office. If you’re graduating this summer, sign up to the Dunelm online community to gain access to a wealth of information through one of the world's most trusted and well used electronic collections of academic journals. Covering over 50 academic disciplines, JSTOR offers nearly 1500 journals and often includes the full text of each article."

Alumni and retired staff can register for a Dunelm account at: http://www.dunelm.org.uk/jstor

"Time for academics to withdraw free labour"

at: http://deevybee.blogspot.ca/2012/01/time-for-academics-to-withdraw-free.html

University of Edinburgh joining JSTOR's alumni scheme

JSTOR responds

I recently contacted JSTOR on the vexed issue of access to research resources for independent scholars. I have had the following most helpful response from JSTOR's Education & Outreach section, although this does not yet solve the problem.

"JSTOR is working to expand options for researchers who have partial or no access to the content on JSTOR through a participating institution. The Register & Read beta program is the most recent development. We are hoping that the data from the program can help us better understand the needs of these researchers and how we can implement a broader subscription-type option for individuals. This will continue to take us some time to figure out. In the meantime, later this year we will be expanding Register & Read to include hundreds of journals beyond the 75 that were included in the initial launch of the program ... Another option that is quickly expanding is our Alumni Access pilot, more information at http://about.jstor.org/."

The Alumni scheme seems a good move and the list of those participating is interesting - it includes the especially prestigious Universities of Oxford and London.
There seems to be a lot of variation in the access offered by individual universities though and whether there is a fee or not for alumni. (It seems fair enough to have a reasonable fee applied, taking account of those not in full-time employment?)

JSTOR's 'register and read' is inadequate for researchers

JSTOR writes:

"we're hoping that the expanded Register & Read program will be useful for researchers while also providing us with information that can help inform a better model." 

Partial schemes - such as JSTOR's 'Register and Read' - cannot really serve as a serious research tool. This is because for an individual researcher, a small range of journals is very unlikely to include those needed among the hundreds used across different disciplines, or in cross-disciplinary work. For example, none of the journals that I might use is there (in areas of art history, cultural geography, nationalism studies, and tourism history). The JSTOR Outreach team has been very responsive to this view and is seeking alternatives such as the Alumni pilot.