Open AccessDoes open access make cents? Return on investment in the institutional repository
Author(s) -
Ellen Dubinsky
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
college and research libraries news
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.281
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 2150-6698
pISSN - 0099-0086
DOI - 10.5860/crln.80.5.281
Subject(s) - scholarly communication , scholarship , digital scholarship , institutional repository , digital library , service (business) , world wide web , access to information , business , population , investment (military) , public relations , information access , library science , computer science , political science , marketing , sociology , publishing , art , demography , literature , poetry , politics , law
Access to information resources is a traditional library service. Public libraries were the first to provide unfettered access to print information resources to a general population. It is not a stretch to recognize those institutions as the earliest providers of open access (OA). Now the term open access is generally defined as the free and immediate online availability of research and scholarship, adapting to the widespread change in delivery format from print to digital. OA as a library service—most commonly in support of the scholarly communication process—has become a priority for most academic libraries. Academic libraries and librarians are increasingly engaged in both providing and promoting OA, primarily through institutional repository (IR) services with roles as creators, disseminators, publishers, and preservers of scholarly content.