
Where There’s a Will There’s a Way?: Survey of Academic Librarian Attitudes about Open Access
Author(s) -
Kristi L. Palmer,
Emily Dill,
Charlene Christie
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
college and research libraries/college and research libraries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.886
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 2150-6701
pISSN - 0010-0870
DOI - 10.5860/0700315
Subject(s) - work (physics) , public relations , action (physics) , scholarly communication , access to information , academic library , free access , open science , political science , information access , psychology , sociology , world wide web , computer science , library science , publishing , engineering , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , law
Academic libraries are becoming increasingly involved in scholarly communication through work with institutional repositories and other open access models. While academic librarians are being encouraged to promote these new models, their opinions about open access have not been documented. This article reports on the results of a national survey conducted in the summer of 2006 of academic librarians’ attitudes toward open access principles and related behaviors. While attitude responses were largely positive, there were differences in levels of support related to respondents’ job descriptions and funding of open access activities. Surveyed librarians appear to be more comfortable with tasks that translate traditionally held responsibilities, such as educating others, to the open access environment. Most significant is the discrepancy between stated support of library involvement in open access initiatives and significantly lacking action toward this end. The results offer insight into how open access proponents may better focus their advocacy efforts.