Introduction
In the introduction, John Willinsky begins by describing the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi: “the tidy but modest” library (xi), since it opened in 1979, managed to continue subscriptions to only five medical journals (none of which focused on the research necessary for that region). Not until 2001 did the World Health Organization aid the library by asking major journals to provide free access to libraries in developing nations. Through a narrative about the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Willinsky outlines the bare bones of his argument for open access. First, he argues that the prices of journals prohibit institutions and societies from equally circulating and accessing knowledge; second, he argues that technology, specifically the Internet and digital publishing, provides creative options and tools to make open access possible.