Title: Framing the issue: open access
Author: Association of Research Libraries, Office of Scholarly Communication
Publisher: Association of Research Libraries
URL: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/framing_issue_may04.pdf
ABSTRACT
Access to information is important to the development of a society. There are however some factors that deter access to information. The rising prices of subscriptions, monopoly of electronic journals from commercial sources and merger acquisitions all have affected the public's access to information and the library's ability to purchase information sources for public consumption. Legislative and legal issues also have begun to interfere with the concept of fair use.
Despite these hindrances, open access has gained more ground through the collaborated efforts of various institutions. PubMed Central, BioMed Central and arXiv.org e-Print archive are examples of open access journals which are supported by organizations to promote and provide access to information at no cost to users.
What I learned
The role of libraries to provide information has been, since time immemorial, the core of library and information services. Despite the fact that libraries are usually non-profit by nature, librarians have made it possible to provide information needs of their specific users. Access to information however, especially in the advent of the internet has increased by a million-fold. Daily, more and more information sources are being added to vast online environment. The emergence of this unique property of the internet increased the demand for speedy-one-click-of-a-button access to information.
The wide array of sources and their availability and property to be transferred and shared in an instant have been however made a venue for commercial and private companies to draw profit from users, most especially in research and development. The prices online subscriptions to journal articles, periodicals, etc. sky-rocketed, building the difficulty for libraries to acquire information for public consumption. The right of the source of information or the authors have become, time and again, an excuse for these companies to increase their costs.
The open access effort is continually paving the way for users to get the information they need at no cost, or at the very least, at a very minimal expense. Examples of these initiatives are the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and Public Library of Science (PLoS. All of which cater to users, free of charge. Some issues on copyright have been raised midst these efforts for open access. According to the Office of Scholarly Communication of the Association of Research Libraries (2004), open access is still compliant to the legal rights of authors and producers since agreements between authors and publishers or producers of open access journals because "authors still retain control over the integrity of their work" and as always, they still have the right to be acknowledged and cited.
Reflections
Open access journals basically contribute to the performance of the role of libraries and librarians. Mostly scientific and scholarly in nature, these sources provide and help a society build its knowledge through the production of new information. Researchers bank on the availability of current peer-reviewed research to make way for new ones. This definitely would affect not only librarians but researchers from all fields of study. This however, may prove difficult to be achieved in environments like our country where all seems to come with a cost and everything is marked with a price tag, even if the service is only for research. Perhaps what information professionals and other capable disciplines or authorities should primarily recognize is the role of information in the society, how it can mold the society into development, and, that everyone should have access to information. Upon this realization, libraries should also establish their worth in the society to gain more support of commercial entities, the government and most especially the users.
References
Articles
Publisher: Association of Research Libraries
URL: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/framing_issue_may04.pdf
ABSTRACT
Access to information is important to the development of a society. There are however some factors that deter access to information. The rising prices of subscriptions, monopoly of electronic journals from commercial sources and merger acquisitions all have affected the public's access to information and the library's ability to purchase information sources for public consumption. Legislative and legal issues also have begun to interfere with the concept of fair use.
Despite these hindrances, open access has gained more ground through the collaborated efforts of various institutions. PubMed Central, BioMed Central and arXiv.org e-Print archive are examples of open access journals which are supported by organizations to promote and provide access to information at no cost to users.
What I learned
The role of libraries to provide information has been, since time immemorial, the core of library and information services. Despite the fact that libraries are usually non-profit by nature, librarians have made it possible to provide information needs of their specific users. Access to information however, especially in the advent of the internet has increased by a million-fold. Daily, more and more information sources are being added to vast online environment. The emergence of this unique property of the internet increased the demand for speedy-one-click-of-a-button access to information.
The wide array of sources and their availability and property to be transferred and shared in an instant have been however made a venue for commercial and private companies to draw profit from users, most especially in research and development. The prices online subscriptions to journal articles, periodicals, etc. sky-rocketed, building the difficulty for libraries to acquire information for public consumption. The right of the source of information or the authors have become, time and again, an excuse for these companies to increase their costs.
The open access effort is continually paving the way for users to get the information they need at no cost, or at the very least, at a very minimal expense. Examples of these initiatives are the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and Public Library of Science (PLoS. All of which cater to users, free of charge. Some issues on copyright have been raised midst these efforts for open access. According to the Office of Scholarly Communication of the Association of Research Libraries (2004), open access is still compliant to the legal rights of authors and producers since agreements between authors and publishers or producers of open access journals because "authors still retain control over the integrity of their work" and as always, they still have the right to be acknowledged and cited.
Reflections
Open access journals basically contribute to the performance of the role of libraries and librarians. Mostly scientific and scholarly in nature, these sources provide and help a society build its knowledge through the production of new information. Researchers bank on the availability of current peer-reviewed research to make way for new ones. This definitely would affect not only librarians but researchers from all fields of study. This however, may prove difficult to be achieved in environments like our country where all seems to come with a cost and everything is marked with a price tag, even if the service is only for research. Perhaps what information professionals and other capable disciplines or authorities should primarily recognize is the role of information in the society, how it can mold the society into development, and, that everyone should have access to information. Upon this realization, libraries should also establish their worth in the society to gain more support of commercial entities, the government and most especially the users.
References
Articles
Association of Research Libraries. (2004). Framing the
issue: open access. Retrieved August 6, 2012, from http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/framing_issue_may04.pdf
Suber, P. (2004). Open access overview: focusing on open
access to peer-reviewed research articles and their pre-prints. Retrieved
August 4, 2012, from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm
Suber, P. (2012). A tale of two bills: the Research Works
Act and Federal Research Public Access Act. SPARC
Open Access Newsletter, 163. Retrieved August 08, 2012, from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/03-02-12.htm
Web Pages
Lincoln City Libraries. General format. Retrieved August 6,
2012, from http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/index.php
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