We (that is, academia) have a very certain idea that new things (such as The Internet) might best be handled at arms length. After all, these are passing fads. Message boards, MyFace, YouTube. We'll just wait till they blow over.

The trouble is that the very system that ensures us some sense of academic freedom, also makes us very much like concrete waiting to dry.

Then there are people like Paul Jones. For those of you who have yet to experience the "Paul Jones" effect, well, you're in for a treat. Here is a man with a degree in computer science who knew he wanted an academic life, a desire that then lead him to an MFA in poetry. Along the way he established the first SunSITE, and evolved that into ibilio.org, one of the more uniquely library-esque web sites.

With any luck, Paul will be visiting our humble abode next year to talk about the modern library and the post-modern idea of sharing and storing.

For you see, we have a very real issue.

What exactly do we do about all the past research we have accumulated? We are all very happy about new online journals (like ojrrp.org), but what about all the past information awaiting conversion into knowledge? Ah, there's the rub.

We have many. many ideas of how we might talk large publishing houses out of their stranglehold on this information, including (gasp!) appealing to Congress to "do something". But the bottom line is, no access = no knowledge creation = no progress. Imagine, dear researcher, being informed by your campus library that, despite incessant tuition increases and minimal support from your state government, we'll just have to live without access to ABI Inform (or whatever your favorite database might be). Imagine trying to recruit faculty to a university without such access.

We can talk all we wish about being a Top Ten This or a Top Ten That, but without access to the information accumulated by past researchers, exactly how are we to come up with the new ideas (A+B=C)?

Sigh.