PERSÉE, the leading program for digitizing and distributing french-speaking scientific content, is threatened

[Michel Bauwens]

Info via http://lapetition.be/en-ligne/petition-9491.html

 

PERSÉE IN DANGER, SIGN THE PETITION

PERSÉE – the leading program for digitizing and distributing french-speaking scientific content – is today threatened on account of a decision taken by the University of Lyon 2 - Lumière

Without prior consultation with Persée's staff, director and partners, the board of the Lyon 2 University has decided, on February 7th 2011, to terminate the agreement supporting the program. This decision will take effect on May 10th 2011.

The Persée team does not understand the rush demonstrated by the administration. No information came before this decision. No discussion was organized. No solution ensuring the continuity of the program was planned, whereas the schedule imposed by Lyon 2 is unsustainable.

We do not know what will become of PERSÉE after May 10th 2011

What consequences ?

• The PERSÉE portal www.persee.fr will be shut down, causing the disappearance of a major scientific tool used by millions of people worlwide.

• A tremendous waste of public fundings, considering that the French Ministry for Education and Research - with the support of the Lyon II University - has been financing PERSÉE for eight years.

• The dismantlement of PERSÉE’s team and the loss of specific technical skills

What is PERSÉE?

• PERSÉE is supported by the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research which digitizes, stores, promotes and distributes millions of pages from articles and monographs of the highest scientific value.

• PERSÉE is the largest digital scientific library of French-speaking content with over 350 000 scientific papers in full text. Its core values are open & free access, free availability of the contents and Creative Commons licensing policy.

• PERSÉE is a tool helping the academic community promote the french-speaking scientific patrimony worldwide since 2005.

• PERSÉE has disseminated 3.6 millions documents, and received 20 millions visits in 2010.

• PERSÉE is bound by 125 agreements with scientific editors, publishers and numerous partnerships with French or foreign universities (La Sorbonne, Louvain etc.), and research institutes (Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, the five Écoles Françaises à l’étranger, the IFRE, M.I.T. etc.).
• PERSÉE is built upon a set of robust and recognized technologies, developed in open source.

• PERSÉE also relies on a team of 21 highly skilled professionals working to make hundreds of thousands of documents available for free.

In its evaluation report, dated December 28th 2010, the AERES (Evaluation Agency for Research and Higher education) pointed out that PERSÉE “is a perfectly sucessfull exemple of a tool aimed at gathering a documentary database that insures the development of very valuable services (...) Whether one considers the portal in terms of its technological options or its ability to structure information and to offer an easy tool for online reading, PERSÉE stands out thanks to the innovative choices upon which its recognition in the complex landscape of the scientific digital publishing field has been founded”. The AERES also stresses " the exemplary manner in which the project [PERSÉE] was conducted with rather modest fundings. "


PERSÉE is a scientific, documentary, and a technological success

Yet, the board of administration of the University of Lyon 2 is willing to take the risk of destroying it.


Show your support to PERSÉE !

We are asking for additional time to be able to organize, in a proper manner that will neither be prejudicial to the partners of PERSÉE nor to its staff, the withdrawal of Lyon 2 and the transfer of the program to another institution

We urge all users of PERSÉE to show their support

Please sign the petition

You may reach us here :
http://twitter.com/PerseeFr
http://www.facebook.com/persee.fr
http://portailpersee.wordpress.com/


The Persée Team