The update fulfils the original mission of the Report to be just the starting point for ongoing reflection. It highlights questions which were barely on the horizon in 2013, such as redefining the role of libraries, ensuring investment in skills and improving coordination in the sector.
The University of Florida (UF) and Elsevier have entered into a partnership to build links between the institutional repository and ScienceDirect. Judy Russell, the dean of libraries at UF expresses conviction that public access policies are advancing and that there is an evolution into the open access world. This sort of partnership are made to address goals seen as vital for the university, such as compliance and public presence. It will be interesting to observe whether libraries continue to develop repositories and scholarly communications programs as an alternative to the publisher ecosystem or in partnership with it.
Nearly two-third of UK researchers support the abolition of journal subscription fees and a move to open access, according to a major study. A survey of 6,679 academics commissioned by Jisc and Research Libraries UK found that 64 per cent of respondents supported making all academic research freely available, but also found significant differences of opinion by discipline. This survey, conducted last autumn, follows a similar study conducted in 2012, and shows how scholarly practice is evolving. According to Paul Feldman, Jisc’s chief executive, it confirmed that research practice is evolving and academics are embracing this change.
Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible texts and media that faculty can assemble, repurpose and package under open access agreements for teaching and research – and they are a rapidly growing option. Even if Faculty may seem to be resistant to this evolution, the Open Educational Consortium is working to promote awareness, collaboration, innovation and development of OER. The US Department of Education now recognizes 14 states and 40 districts committing to the #GoOpen initiative, to help develop new degree programs using OER.
The International Alliance of Research Library Associations (IARLA) – a global coalition of major research and academic library associations in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States – recognizes the importance of working towards a common vision for open data. In setting out principles for open data, the Science International accord on Open Data in a Big Data World provides a practical road map for the implementation of open data at the global level. By signing this accord, IARLA declares their commitment to working with the scientific community in making publicly funded research data open by default.
SirsiDynix announces the one-millionth digital content download through eResource Central (eRC), an electronic resource management and discovery system that simplifies access to library resources by uniting physical and digital content into a single discovery interface. Digital content can be downloaded without re-directing to external vendor sites. Currently, eRC libraries have access to more than 9 million titles from 11 content providers with many more providers in the process of joining.
1Science and EBSCO Information Services announce their partnership to provide academic libraries access to a vast number of openly accessible scholarly articles when performing a search in EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). Through this agreement, 1Science and EBSCO allow clients and users to access to more than 15.5 million open access, scholarly papers, all directly in EDS, to facilitate the flow of knowledge.
Since Mid-April, Latindex has published a new interface with new search, download and statistics functionalities.
Elsevier’s Pure is one of many current research information systems (CRIS) aiming to consolidate research information in one plateform. The benefits of this kind of systems are highlighted. Vendors and information brokers already have in place the integrations needed to help publishers make full use of identifiers, adopt industry standards, and make their data harvestable. Five best practices are mentioned that publishers can implement to meet the research tracking demands of institutions.
Through an exploration of the concept of research transparency as a third dimension of open science and open data, an important linkage is made to the research lifecycle as a setting for potential transparency interventions by libraries. Four broad areas of opportunity for LIS engagement and action on transparency in open science are highlighted. Questions such as ‘How does this trend impact on library and institutional policy?’, ‘What new library services might be developed?’ and ‘How should iSchools augment their educational offerings to encompass transparency concepts?’ will be explored.
