Importance of Open Access Unit In Academic Library

INTRODUCTION

Emerging developments in Internet in the 1990s led to global sharing of knowledge and universal access to information resources. Scholarly communication channels got tremendous impetus, when Internet pushed further their reach, availability and readership.

"A commitment to scholarly work carries with it a responsibility to circulate that work as widely as possible: this is the access principle. In the digital age, that responsibility includes exploring new publishing technologies and economic models to improve access to scholarly work. Wide circulation adds value to published work; it is a significant aspect of its claim to be knowledge. The right to know and the right to be known are inextricably mixed" (Willinsky, 2010). Increasingly, this capacity to close the gap between developed and less developed countries through access to information becomes more important for educational, cultural, and scientific development. Open Access can foster information and knowledge sharing within research, educational, and scientific communities in traditionally economically disadvantaged regions (Canada, 2009). This work examines the importance of open access unit in Academic Libraries; it will also look at the definition, characteristics and evolution of open access.

  

DEFINITION OF OPEN ACCESS

Open access is a generic term used for knowledge resources made available in the public domain for public access or public consumption at large scale, without any hindrance of subscription fee or access charges. Open Access is facilitated in an internet-based online environment. Thus, Open Access facilitators as well as users need to establish an online connectivity for knowledge diffusion.

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results—to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives

The Bethesda Statement (2003) defines open access, where "The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use"

EVOLUTION OF OPEN ACCESS

Open Access movement is a worldwide phenomenon to mitigate challenges faced by the global libraries and research institutions related to ‘serials crisis’ –a spiraling effect of constant increase in subscription cost of many scholarly journals and exponential hike of online access fees of e-journals in 1990s that led to cancellation or reduction of subscriptions of many over-priced serials due to budgetary limits. Open Access initiatives tried to provide initially Gratis Open Access and later Libre Open Access to scholarly literature. The first ever formal Open Access repository launched was the arXiv.org in 1991 which helped researchers in self-archiving of their electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics.

Characteristics of Open Access

Ø It provides free availability of scholarly publication.

Ø It is free of copyright and licensing restrictions.

Ø Materials are available online or on the internet.

Ø Materials are in full text.

Ø Material can be accessed by anybody from anywhere without any discrimination.

Ø Material can be freely used by anyone.

Ø Open Access contents can be in any format from texts and data to software, audio, video, and multi-media, scholarly articles and their preprints.

IMPORTANCE OF OPEN ACCESS UNIT IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

Ø One of the great benefits of open access is that, students and faculty members in academic institutions can have greater access to various scholarly resources.

Ø It helps to ensure long-term access to scholarly articles.

Ø It provides removal of access barriers, as there is no cost associated with subscriptions or online access.

Ø There is no access restriction in Open Access mode, leading to bridging knowledge divides.

Ø It brings every piece of online content to a general or specialized audience, depending on nature of contents.

Ø Open Access publishing brings full potentials of the communicated research.

Ø It helps researchers seeking research collaborations get engaged with the publishing authors for possible international collaborations at the institutional or individual level.

Ø The Open Access contents also offer a window for receiving constructive feedbacks, comments, and opinions.

CONCLUSION

The importance of open access unit in academic libraries is numerous. The importance includes lower costs, great accessibility, and better prospects for long-term preservation of scholarly works. Academic libraries should embrace this concept now and in the future. By supporting and promoting open access in academic libraries not only can help ensure that their current and future patrons will have easier and more comprehensive access to scholarly research, they will also be helping other libraries around the world, including those in disadvantaged areas, to have access to important scholarly research.

  

REFERENCES

Anderson, R. 2004. Open access in the real world: confronting economic and legal reality. College and Research Library News 64(4). [Online]. Available: {http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/351/} [Accessed July 18, 2017].

Bethesda Statement (2003). Bethesda statement on open access publishing.