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

[Allison Fullard]

Dear Elsabe
At the very moment that you sent this email, the UWC Librarians were
discussing this report during the monthly Reading Club!  Thanks for
highlighting the aspects that are relevant for all libraries.  The
report presents the outcomes of a discussion on the impact of Open
Access, held at British Library by a number of prominent UK librarians
with one or two from US and one from Middle East.
 
The policy climate in UK must be quite disconcerting and we can
understand how the Finch Report and the revised RCUK policy are driving
the need to better understand the changing environment for UK libraries,
specifically in the sense that these policies focus on gold OA while
downplaying green OA. 
 
For this reason the Report seems to emphasise gold OA and specifically
the budgets for article processing charges and features debate about who
may manage these resources and the consequences for libraries.  We note
that Sage was sponsoring and co-organiser of the meeting.  For me, I had
a sense that there was rather an uncritical acceptance that publishers
shall sustain their current levels of income with the result that
workflows (and hierarchies) at universities are rearranged to maintain
status quo in the publishing enterprise!
 
Regards
Allison
 
   
 
Allison Fullard
Deputy Director: Library Services
University of the Western Cape
Ph:  27-(0)21 959-2923  
Fax:  27-(0)21 959-2659

Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535
South Africa

http://www.uwc.ac.za/library 
>>> "Elsabe Olivier" <Elsabe.Olivier at up.ac.za> 2012/10/26 09:20 AM >>>
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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