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On “Liberation Through Cooperation,” by Dave S. Ghamandi

On “Liberation Through Cooperation,” by Dave S. Ghamandi

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In “Liberation through Cooperation: How Library Publishing Can Save Scholarly Journals from Neoliberalism,” Dave S. Ghamandi argues that the current academic publishing system is thoroughly entrenched in contemporary neoliberalism. He also suggests that certain directions that the Open Access movement is taking—such as the increase of Article Processing Charges (APCs)—further a neoliberal agenda as they maintain a capital concentration with the oligopoly of corporate academic publishers. Ghamandi calls for a more radical approach to scholarly communication premised on cooperative models:…

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On Selections from Open Praxis, Open Access, edited by Darren Chase and Dana Haugh

On Selections from Open Praxis, Open Access, edited by Darren Chase and Dana Haugh

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Open Praxis, Open Access: Digital Scholarship in Action is a 2020 collection edited by Darren Chase and Dana Haugh. Primarily, it draws together chapters that reflect librarian considerations of open scholarship. In what follows I summarize a handful of chapters from this collection. In “An Overview of the Open Access Movement in Canada,” Rosarie Coughlan and Mark Swartz do as their chapter title promises: they provide an overarching look at the state of open access in Canada. The authors suggest…

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On “‘Is the Library Open?’: Correlating Unaffiliated Access to Academic Libraries with Open Access Support,” by Katie Wilson et al.

On “‘Is the Library Open?’: Correlating Unaffiliated Access to Academic Libraries with Open Access Support,” by Katie Wilson et al.

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In this article Katie Wilson, Cameron Neylon, Chloe Brookes-Kenworthy, Richard Hosking, Chun-Kai (Karl) Huang, Lucy Montgomery, and Alkim Ozaygen assess the “openness” of a selection of 20 universities from 15 countries by focusing on the flexibility and availability of their libraries for unaffiliated users. The authors acknowledge that open access is growing worldwide, and is evident through an increase in publishing as well as institutional policies suggesting or even mandating open access to research. However, many of these same institutions…

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On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

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In In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing, Jean-Claude Guédon assesses the state of academic publishing as of 2001, including library activities and commercial publisher strategies. This early contribution to the open scholarship / scholarly communication conversation was originally presented in a talk to the Association of Research Libraries. Guédon argues that libraries need to take a more prominent role in the dissemination elements of scholarly communication by actively supporting and being involved…

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On “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” by Rick Anderson

On “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” by Rick Anderson

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In “The Forbidden Forecast: Thinking About Open Access and Library Subscriptions,” Rick Anderson considers and advocates in favour for the potentially disruptive role of Green OA on subscriptions budgets. He argues that without cancelling subscriptions alongside moving to Green OA, library budgets will not recover. Anderson brings attention to the fact that more OA articles is not what is needed; rather, a transition from toll access to open access is the action that would have the largest impact. Although Anderson…

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On “Piracy, Public Access, and Preservation: An Exploration of Sustainable Accessibility in a Public Torrent Index,” by John D. Martin III

On “Piracy, Public Access, and Preservation: An Exploration of Sustainable Accessibility in a Public Torrent Index,” by John D. Martin III

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In “Piracy, Public Access, and Preservation: An Exploration of Sustainable Accessibility in a Public Torrent Index,” John D. Martin III considers the argument that torrent sites like The Pirate Bay should be considered as public libraries, as some torrent advocates have argued. He concludes that there is a massive amount of cultural material on The Pirate Bay and other similar sites, and that “the variety and richness of the content found in torrent networks may eventually represent a tragic loss…

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On “Institutional Repositories and Academic Social Networks: Competition or Complement?” by Julia A. Lovett et al.

On “Institutional Repositories and Academic Social Networks: Competition or Complement?” by Julia A. Lovett et al.

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Julia A. Lovett, Andrée J. Rathemacher, Diana Boukari, and Corey Lang set out to compare whether faculty members at their institution, the University of Rhode Island, deposit their work more with ResearchGate or with the institution’s own repository. To do so, the authors perform a population study and survey of over 500 faculty members. Lovett et al. found that scholars who are prone to depositing with one system will likely deposit with another. As such, Lovett et al. argue, “librarians…

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On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

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The Final Report of the Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group outlines the current challenges to the Canadian academic publishing system, as well as suggests principles to guide a successful, sustainable system moving forward. These principles include accountability (to the academy), supporting openness and high-quality publishing practices, well-informed authors, dynamic Canadian publishing opportunities, building on strength, and flexibility and adaptability. The report applauds initiatives like the collaboration between Érudit and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to bring more open access journals…

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On “Creating Digital Knowledge: Library as Open Access Digital Publisher,” by Russell Bailey

On “Creating Digital Knowledge: Library as Open Access Digital Publisher,” by Russell Bailey

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As more and more scholarship becomes digital, the role of libraries and librarians is changing. Russell Bailey comments on the possibilities for university libraries in the digital age. In particular, he argues that there are increasing opportunities for libraries to facilitate or even produce open access digital scholarship. Bailey walks his readers through three examples of digital scholarship projects led by Providence College: a multimedia monograph and two online journals. He concludes that open access digital publishing in higher education…

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On Collaboration in Scholarly Communication: Opportunities to Normalize Open Access,” by Allyson Rodriguez

On Collaboration in Scholarly Communication: Opportunities to Normalize Open Access,” by Allyson Rodriguez

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Librarians play a key role in the scholarly communication cycle. In “Collaboration in Scholarly Communication: Opportunities to Normalize Open Access,” Allyson Rodriguez details how librarians can promote an open access agenda and educate faculty members about scholarly communication practices and pragmatics. Rodriguez suggests that there are three main areas where librarians can promote open access: through outreach and education, highlighting and celebrating, and acquisitions. As Rodriguez writes, “Open access must become a ‘normal’ part of the academic lifestyle,” and in…

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