[Irtalk] Open Access and its impact on the future of the university librarian

[Elsabe Olivier]

Dear Colleagues
 
Interesting report on Open access and its impact on the role of
academic libraries attached:
 

The role of libraries
• Open access will reduce the importance of libraries developing
institutional collections but key librarian skills will still be
required
• External discovery systems may be favoured over the library
catalogue
• Libraries are well placed to – and in many cases already do – manage
institutional repositories
• Managing metadata will be very important for good discoverability of
open access resources
• Functions such as metadata management and preservation are likely to
be done on a web scale rather than on an institutional level
• Individual library value will be judged on quality of provision
rather than on breadth of collection; value will also be added by
digitizing and making available unique collections
• Libraries will increasingly need to work together and share functions
and services
• Attention will shift from the library to the librarian: ‘the
information professional is the library of the future.’
 
Suggested actions
• Academic libraries need to evolve to continue to meet the changing
needs of their users. Libraries will need to look for ways to work
together; greater dialogue is needed between libraries about strategies
for dealing with open access and best practices
• Clear communication of open access, its benefits, processes and
implications is needed for researchers
• A review should be taken exploring attitudes towards the role of
institutional collections as more content is available as OA
• As with all publishing models, open access carries both benefits and
costs. The group believes that good policy outcomes will only result if
those involved in the marketplace are willing to acknowledge and
evaluate both and calls upon those involved to maintain open dialogue on
open access.
 
Regards
Elsabé
 
Elsabe Olivier 
Manager: Open Scholarship
NDLTD Board Member
Department Library Services
Office 2.24.4
University of Pretoria
PO Box 12411
Hatfield, PRETORIA
South Africa
0028

Tel.: + 27 12 420 3719
Fax: +27 12 362 5182
E-mail: elsabe.olivier at up.ac.za
Skype: elsabe.olivier


Twitter: elsabeolivier
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