Collaborative Librarianship Volume 3 Issue 4 Article 3 2011 Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships into Open Access Week Events Andrea A. Wirth Oregon State University Libraries, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship Part of the Information Literacy Commons Recommended Citation Wirth, Andrea A. (2011) "Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships into Open Access Week Events," Collaborative Librarianship: Vol. 3 : Iss. 4 , Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29087/2011.3.4.05 Available at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol3/iss4/3 This Scholarly Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Collaborative Librarianship by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Wirth: Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships into Open Access Week Events Andrea A. Wirth ([email protected]) Oregon State University Libraries Abstract Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries participated in Open Access (OA) Week in 2009 and 2010. In order to expand the range of events offered, the committee members assigned to program planning looked for opportunities to work with partners beyond the library. The collaborative activities developed through these partnerships created settings for in-depth conversations among librarians, faculty, and students about scholarly communication issues. Subject librarians’ relationships with their departments provided opportunities to host events in venues other than the library, which helped, facilitate access to a diverse audience. An established cooperative relationship with the University of Oregon made it possi- ble to provide additional presentations to the OSU community. An evaluation of the quantity and quality of contacts made during OA Week suggests the collaborative activities enriched these outreach activities and that participation in OA Week is worthwhile for OSU Libraries to continue. Keywords: Open Access Week; Subject Librarians; Outreach Introduction Scholarly communication programs on different campuses reflect the varying needs of the insti- Open access (OA) refers to scholarly literature tution and the capacity of the university libra- that is made freely available online “without ries.4 Oregon State University (OSU) librarians financial, legal, or technical barriers other than have been developing and refining a scholarly those inseparable from gaining access to the in- communication program since 2004. Though ternet itself.”1 Ways in which authors provide largely inspired by first-hand knowledge of open access to their scholarship include posting journal price inflation and a budget that could a version of their work in an institutional or sub- not keep up, the program grew over time. One ject repository after publication in a subscrip- aspect of this broader approach is participation tion-based journal or publishing in a journal in OA Week, which provides an opportunity to without any access restrictions. Open access highlight ways in which the library is proactive- publishing is not limited to journal articles, but ly helping to create change in scholarly publish- frequently these are the focus of OA efforts giv- ing. en the intense scrutiny journals receive in re- spect to their increasing prices in contrast to OSU participated in Open Access Week in both stagnant library budgets.2 2009 and 2010. The primary goal that influenced OSU planning was to reach non-library mem- Open Access Day became Open Access Week in bers of the community including faculty, gradu- 2009. The week is “an opportunity for the aca- ate students, and undergraduates for the pur- demic and research community to continue to pose of informing them about open access, local learn about the potential benefits of Open OA initiatives, and resources available to them. Access, to share what they’ve learned with col- Since OA Week events focus on such a broad leagues, and to help inspire wider participation audience, it is an important part of the scholarly in helping to make Open Access a new norm in communication program that otherwise primari- scholarship and research.”3 Participation in this ly addresses issues of interest to faculty and international event provides a framework for administrators and to an extent, graduate stu- libraries to promote open access at the local lev- dents. For these latter audiences, dissemination el. of OSU research and authors’ rights are key conversation topics, whereas graduates and un- Collaborative Librarianship 3(4):197-204 (2011) 197 Wirth: Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships dergraduates may wish to discuss barriers to Library consortia or other existing partnerships accessing scholarly content that hinder their between libraries can help to pool resources and immediate information needs as students. generate ideas for scholarly communication in- itiatives. In one example, the Boston Library Programming and events were influenced by Consortium (BLC) developed a system-wide the strong connections the subject librarians program around the topic of authors’ rights. have with their departments, the encouragement The consortium developed training materials, for and growing expectation of subject librarian brochures, and a website of resources for the involvement with scholarly communication in- consortium’s libraries. Although a robust con- itiatives, and an expanding range of collabora- sortially-managed program did not evolve from tive activities between Oregon State University these efforts, the BLC work helped local initia- and the University of Oregon (UO). An assess- tives by “emphasiz[ing] the high priority that ment structure to quantify the success of OA the BLC has placed on addressing the crisis in Week events was put in place in 2009 and con- scholarly communication”8 and starting the tinued in 2010. This article reports on these conversations and training within the individual events and their preliminary evaluation. libraries. Literature Review Unlike the ongoing attention to open access and scholarly communication systems in library and Two areas recently described in the library lite- other disciplinary journals, assessment of out- rature that parallel OSU Libraries’ planning for reach methods used to connect with researchers OA Week are the roles of subject librarians in about open access has not been formally re- scholarly communication initiatives and means ported on with regularity.9 How does a library of utilizing the energy of existing collaborative know when the investment of time and money relationships between and within institutions. spent in an outreach effort such as OA Week is worthwhile? In 2007, an Association of Re- Subject librarians often share news of library search Libraries survey found that only nine per activities with their departmental connections cent of survey respondents with scholarly com- over and above their traditional roles for sup- munication programs in their libraries had eva- porting disciplinary research and teaching. In a luated their program initiatives. However, 42 growing number of institutions, this includes per cent of libraries reported “demonstrable sharing information about scholarly communi- outcomes” from their activities10 suggesting a cation initiatives. For example, position descrip- link between outreach efforts and community tions of subject librarians the University of action on the issues. Only a few articles have Minnesota include phrases such as “educate and been written that specifically address the au- inform faculty, graduate students, and campus thors’ insights into planning and assessment of administrators about scholarly communication OA Week activities.11 The next step perhaps is issues” and “help faculty and graduate students to share goals of outreach efforts regularly, the understand their rights as authors.”5 Other evi- associated planning to achieve those goals and dence supporting the use of an established sub- outcomes as they pertain to OA Week and other ject librarian model to foster scholarly commu- scholarly communication program efforts that nication understanding is from the University of could be adapted for OA Week. British Columbia, where the program Steering Committee recognized that “liaison librarians’ Open Access Week at OSU disciplinary networks could be crucial to formu- lating a picture of [scholarly communication] A committee of librarians drawn from the Scho- changes at the system level.”6 In other cases, larly Communication Working Group (SCWG) liaison models may be utilized in a variety of and subject librarians planned the OA Week ways to promote aspects of the programs, such events. The SCWG consists of librarians in- as institutional repository outreach.7 volved in the scholarly communication program at OSU Libraries. The pool of subject librarians Collaborative Librarianship 3(4):197-204 (2011) 198 Wirth: Incorporating Existing Library Partnerships at OSU is small, yet in both 2009 and 2010, at OA Week 2009, several subject librarians had least one subject librarian (beyond those already been working closely with their departments on on the SCWG) volunteered to help. Once topics such as the institutional repository (Scho- formed, the committee planned the week’s larsArchive@OSU) and authors’ rights. The events with the support of the library adminis- committee decided