OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW Open practices for researchers: the library view Sarah Taylor BA (Hons) MPhil PgDipLIM MCLIP Electronic.

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

Open practices for researchers: the library view

Sarah Taylor BA (Hons) MPhil PgDipLIM MCLIP

Electronic Resources Librarian

20th June 2014

20th June 2014

Presenting the library view

• Introducing the University of Bolton Institutional Repository (UBIR) Background Evolution Future

• Welcome to the library! Managing and providing access to resources

• The role of the library in supporting open access

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

University of Bolton Institutional Repository (UBIR)

• UBIR was launched in 2007, with the principle driver being the 2008 RAE

• Initially full-text only

• Contains ‘expected’ repository material, i.e. journal articles, conference papers, book chapters etc. with a lot more besides

• All about raising the profile of research on every level, as well as collaboration across the university

• We are on our third ‘version’ of UBIR, so what you see if you search is still very much under construction

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

UBIR: understanding our user community

• RAE = total, long-lasting engagement…?

• By excluding records that had only the bibliographic details, we were excluding information about research, and indeed researchers: time for change!

• Increasing demand for the inclusion of a wide range of material types, including photographs and learning materials

• Requests from academics to include student work welcomed with enthusiasm

• Our size makes us unique: we can engage and understand what UBIR needs to achieve

• It’s YOUR repository

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

The future of UBIR

• Re-launch: redefine objectives; ensure that all get the message

• Continue to encourage deposit of a wide range of material, all of which will demonstrate the ways in which the University of Bolton produces intellectual output

• Improvements to the UBIR interface and functionality, including usage statistics and ensuring that material in UBIR is discoverable as it can be

• Future proof: ensure that UBIR can support – and contribute to – the open access landscape at the University of Bolton

• It’s YOUR repository

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

Welcome to the library!• Around 130,000 books

• Around 8,000 electronic books

• Around 40,000 electronic journals along with 60 databases covering a wide range of topics

• Supports every subject taught at the University of Bolton

• Provides user education beyond subject support, i.e. information literacy

• Administers UBIR, Bolton’s primary mode for engaging in open access

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

Why is the library involved in open access?

• An institutional repository is very often a library-led service

• Supporting and providing access to research is what we do: this is just one part of this activity

• We have no inherent subject ‘bias’, in that we aim to support all subjects

• We are motivated to provide access to research and maximise that access so that we can, as far as possible, prove that we are offering excellent value for money

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

Why is the library involved in open access?

• Sometimes it might seem that we work in rather ‘old fashioned’ ways, for example, cataloguing and metadata standards. However, this is all so that academic output is as visible as possible

• We love statistics! And we love to be able to prove what these might mean for the usefulness and future of our collections

• We are absolutely at the sharp end of acquiring research enabling access to it: we are part of the triangle of scholarly communication

• Delivery of user education is a central function

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

The triangle of scholarly communication

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

Scholarly communication

Researcher

Publisher Library

Linlin Zhao (2014) Riding the wave of open access: providing library research support for scholarly publishing literacy . Australian Academic and Research Libraries, 45 (1), 3 - 18

20th June 2014

Scholarly publishing literacy

• The term “scholarly publishing literacy” was coined by Jeffrey Beale in 2012 in an attempt to describe the knowledge and skills required to fully appreciate the ways in which scholarly publishing and communication has changed, and continues to evolve

• Open access have provided challenges to every level of the scholarly communication landscape

• A “dynamic concept”, and one that needs to be considered a broader level

• Inextricably linked with digital scholarship and information literacy: therefore, there is a need for library involvement

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

Scholarly publishing literacy in an open access world?

• Knowledge of the subject and an understanding of journals in the field, including how they are ranked

• Awareness of how to engage in open access and how open access publications work

• Understand if there are any open access implications within funders’ policies

• Knowledge of licencing and copyright issues, including how Creative Commons licences relate to open access

• Understand how best to manage your own rights as an author

• Understand the need for stringent checking of open access journals, for example, are they genuine, what is the quality of the finished article etc.

• Some technical skills may also be required!

OPEN PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

20th June 2014

Conclusion

• The library can support engagement in open access in a variety of ways

• Librarians have existing skills sets that can be adapted to aid with open access

• The library often provides a lead on institution-wide engagement in open access, for example, the institutional repository

• The library is a part of the triangle of scholarly communication

OPEN ACCESS PRACTICES FOR RESEARCHERS: THE LIBRARY VIEW

27th February 2014

Discussion and questions

[email protected]

OPEN ACCESS