[Irtalk] Open Access survey findings throw light on the evolving role of the librarian

[Elsabe Olivier]

Today, InTech – an Open Access (OA) publisher – has published the
results of a survey appraising attitudes and awareness of the library
community towards the OA business model in scholarly publishing.

The survey results suggest that although librarians have a good level of
awareness and knowledge of OA, they believe their research communities
are much less aware. Their work to educate their communities is hampered
by lack of informational support materials.

Librarians remain broadly supportive of OA and the vast majority already
feel the benefits of the model are being realized, or will be realized
in the future. Despite this support, librarians in our sample were not
actively involved in managing OA funds centrally, indeed, almost half
were unaware of how OA charges are funded within their institution.

The greatest concern librarians have with OA center on the article
processing charges being set too high. There is generally less concern
with the quality of peer review or the potential incentive for
publishers to focus on quantity over quality. Less than a quarter of
librarians were concerned that OA could make their role and the services
provided by the library less visible. Indeed, librarians see a strong
future for the profession becoming more closely integrated with their
research communities as a partner, educator and innovator.

For the full survey results summary, please visit:

http://www.intechopen.com/open-access-survey-findings-throw-light-on-the-evolving-role-of-librarian.html

Or to download the full results of the survey, visit:
http://www.intechopen.com/js/ckeditor/kcfinder/upload/files/Role%20of%20the%20Librarian_Survey_Findings_Jun12.pdf

For more information, please contact:
Paul MacKenzie-Cummins
mackenzie at intechweb.org

Elsabe Olivier 
Open Scholarship Manager
Department Library Services
University of Pretoria
PRETORIA
0002
South Africa
 
Tel.: + 27 + 12 + 420 3719
Fax: +27 12 362 5100
E-mail: elsabe.olivier at up.ac.za
Skype: elsabe.olivier
http://www.library.up.ac.za
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