Promoting Open Access to Research in Academic Libraries

Introduction "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. Open Access can benefit both" (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. OA can foster information and knowledge sharing within research, educational, and scientific communities in traditionally economically disadvantaged regions (Canada, 2009). Based on the latest literature, this paper examines academic libraries' initiatives in promoting open access. It will also look at the obstacles and challenges faced in open access with specific reference to developing countries. First of all it would be suitable to appreciate the concept of open access. What is Open Access (OA)? According to BOAI the concept of Open Access refers to "[the] free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself" (BOAI, 2002). 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". The Guru of Open Access Harnad (2008) has described the characteristics of Open Access. "Information, which is Free, immediate, permanent, full-text, on-Line and accessible". Harnad suggests three main justifications of OA: "to maximise the uptake, usage, applications and impact of the research output of your university; to measure and reward the uptake, usage, applications and impact of the research output of your university (research metrics) and, to collect, manage and showcase a permanent record of the research output and impact of your university". Peter Suber (2010) describes, "Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions". Suber also states that open access contents are not restricted only to peer-reviewed research articles, they can be in any formats from texts and data to software, audio, video, and multi-media. Although the OA movement focuses on peer-reviewed research articles and their preprints, OA can also apply to non-scholarly content, like music, movies, and novels, even if these are not the focus of most OA activists (Suber, 2010). Suber's definition is broad, it goes beyond scholarly publications. Thus, Open Access has the following characteristics: * It is free availability of scholarly publication. * It is free of copyright and licensing restrictions * Materials are available online or on the internet. * Material is full text. * Material can be accessed by anybody from anywhere without any discrimination. * Material can be freely used by anyone. * Open Access contents can be in any format from texts and data to software, audio, video, and multi-media, scholarly articles and their preprints. …