I'm fortunate to have a group of really interesting friends and coworkers. Like most of us in academia, most of them have research interests, but some have personal research interests they pursue as seriously as their "official" work, but keep it separate from their professional work. I know one woman who's read everything about and visited every location relevant to a particular children's book author. I just found out that another person in my circle researches the history and cultural relevance of a department store local to him. I find the idea of the amateur scholar fascinating and have marveled at the work people put into their various interests.

A recent post called Hurrah for independent scholars at What Now? is about this very topic.

And in the meantime -- hurrah for independent scholars! What dedication, to be so devoted to an author or an issue or an event to spend hours and hours and no doubt lots of money (for travel and membership to university libraries, at least) solely for the love of knowledge and not for professional gain. Quite an inspiration.

That kind of dedication is truly admirable, and in this case really helped out a fellow researcher. How many of us are doing this kind of awesome research but are keeping it private and out of reach of others? As a librarian, I geek out when I find in-depth research out on the web for the benefit of anybody who happens upon it.

Open access means a lot of things, including institutional repositories. I try to keep an eye on what the team at OA Librarian are up to. Recently, they've been reporting on some ideas to entice faculty to deposit in institutional repositories. A taste:

John Willinsky (UBC professor, and author of "The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship") believes the key is to appeal to their ego. Faculty love to see their work widely disseminated, read, praised and cited. It feeds their ego, they're human. But what's the hook?

Discipline faculty, is ego a hook for you? Would more recognition entice you to use your institutions' repositories?

Kaijsa Calkins blogs about life and librarianship at Jag saker job.