LISPA JOURNAL, VOL II, 2016 13 Open Access Initiatives of the Central University Libraries of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland R.K. Sofia Devi* Dr. Ch. Ibohal Singh** Abstract Open access initiative is a new approach, movement to democratize accessing to scholarly publication to the academic community liberalizing from economic and geographical barriers. The present study has sought to compare the existing library services and initiatives towards open access in three central University libraries of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. Exposing certain clues on some aspects of open access, the study covers only Assam University, Silchar, Nagaland University, Kohima and Manipur University, Imphal. The study had also revealed some of the major challenges and recommendations in proper adoption of OAI in the universities. Keywords: Open access, OAI, University library, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland Introduction Universities adopt open access initiatives as a means of providing better access to teaching, learning and research materials to not only its own academic community but also to provide their research output to a wider audience across the world. In the developing countries it has been seen as an unprecedented opportunity to provide equality of access to essential research information and raising awareness of research. Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of information resources particularly research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results- to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives(SPARC.org).Three groups took initiatives towards open access: the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI), Bethesda statement and Berlin Declaration in 2003. The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) took place in 2001, where the term “open access” was coined and the two strategies of GreenOA and Gold OA were devised (Poynder, 2010). The “golden road” of OA journal publishing is where journals provide OA to their articles either by charging the author-institution for refereeing/publishing outgoing articles instead of charging the user-institution for accessing incoming articles, or by simply making their online edition free for all. The “green road” of OA self-archiving is where authors provide OA to their own published articles, by making their own e-prints for all. The problems that developing countries have always faced with respect to research information are unable to meet the high cost of subscriptions and as a consequence researchers have remained informationally impoverished and professionally isolated. Further, the scholarly knowledge arising from their own research inability to integrate national research into the global knowledge pool.(OASIS)Librarians have numerous roles to play in the growing digital environment, with the move towards open access prompting a profound change in the way university libraries manage their scholarly communications – not least in how they use online repositories for publishing and opening up access to research. Past Studies A good number of studies are found to be conducted across the world on various aspects of open access and its initiatives. Some of the recent past studies have shown us many issues associated with these newly emerged concepts in the field of library and information sciences. * Research Scholar, UGC-JRF, Department of LIS, Manipur University, Imphal, E-mail: [email protected] ** Assistant Professor (S-2), Department of LIS, Manipur University, Imphal, E-mail: [email protected] LISPA JOURNAL, VOL II, 2016 14 The open access movement has turned to libraries as a haven for solutions. As published content grew more expensive and restricted, and the internet made the distribution of ideas relatively cheap and easy, avoiding the publisher as a middle man, open access became an obvious option for libraries. Today libraries becoming alternative publishers through institutional repositories (Jain, 2012). Fundamental role of libraries in removing barriers to the free exchange of information is transforming the landscape of scholarly communication through building institutional repositories, publishing OA journals, hosting Open Educational Resources, facilitating access to research data and advocating for the passage of OA policies. Many of these activities fall under the emerging field of library publishing, which will be a fundamental role for many academic libraries in an OA future. (Chadwell & Sutton, 2014). In a study, Polynder, (2013) proposed that a small set of competent and motivated libraries with large subscription budgets and substantial faculty support cooperate in taking the lead. This group of libraries would shift funds from subscriptions to investing in developing infrastructure and other components, for a library-based scholarly communication system. He estimates that this could deliver savings of somewhere between 30-90 per cent over today’s subscription costs. Exploring the role of librarians, Myers (2011), revealing that Librarians have played a different role than LIS faculty in open access (OA) practice. In addition to participating in OA activities as publication contributors for self-archiving and consumers for access, reading, and citing, many academic librarians also have been involved in advocating, studying, planning, implementing, and managing OA repositories. A recently released guide from the Research Information Network acknowledges that in the very long term, open access may help to reduce the pressure on library budges, but for the next three to five years at least, open access initiatives will continue to represent additional burdens on libraries, while the costs of running repositories, or paying publication fees, are not being offset by any significant reductions in subscription costs for scholarly journals (Information Today Europe e-News, 2010). As the review reveals, academic libraries particularly research institutions should take major initiatives in proper adoption of OA culture in their institutions through establishing OA repositories, or supporting OA publishing including Open access educational resources. OA will be the only solution to reduce the price and access barrier, increase the visibility of research output, enhance the scholarly communication among the researchers in the near future particularly for the under develop country. Objectives of the study The objectives of the study are: To assess the motives behind initiatives of the OAI in the Universities To understand the impact of OAI in budget, collection, suppliers, publishers, and user communities to ascertain major challenges faced in proper adoption of OA culture in their universities to draw suggestions so as to develop sustainable OA model in future Scope and Methodology There are altogether 10 Central Universities in the entire North Eastern Region of India including Sikkim. However, as the title of the study states, the scope of the present study has been taken up confining to the following aspects: a) Three Central Universities of North East India namely; Assam University, Silchar Manipur University, Imphal Nagaland University, Kohima b) The libraries of these Universities c) Open Access Initiatives (OAI) taken up by these libraries LISPA JOURNAL, VOL II, 2016 15 d) Motives behind adoption of OAI, its impact, challenges faced and suggestions towards improving the systems. Methodology The methods adopted in the study are: Personal visit to the libraries and meeting and discussing about the issues with the librarians and a few user community. Use of a semi-structurally designed questionnaire to collect data from the libraries concerned Adoption of simple mathematical calculations in the analysis of data and interpretation using tables, etc. Universities and their Libraries As mentioned above the universities covered in the present study are being discussed here below: Assam University Assam University, Silchar, a central university established in 1994, has 38 departments under 16 schools. Rabindra Library is its Central library. At present it has 15 professional staff, 6 non- professional staff and 1 IT professionals with a collection of 1,24,000 books and a number of e-books and e- journals which are available in UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium and Delcon consortium. Library has started its automation and digitization process using KOHA library management software and DSpace software respectively Manipur University The State University of Manipur established on 5th June, 1980 became a Central University in October 13, 2005. Presently it has 32 departments under 6 Schools. Manipur University Library has now a collection of 1, 80,344 books and subscribes to more than 200 printed journals. In terms of e- resources it has a collection of 2713 e- books, 8500 e-journals, 586 CD/DVD and more than 800 ETDs. Manipur University Library is also a member of UGC –INFONET Digital Library Consortium. It has already started automation using SOUL Library management software and digitization work is under process using DSpace software. Nagaland University Nagaland University is the only Central University in the state of Nagaland. It was established in 1994. At present it has 8 departments. Nagaland University Library has a holding of around 49,000 books working with 3 professionals and 10 non-professionals. Background Information about the Libraries From the table 1, it is seen that while Assam and Nagaland Universities follow DDC and