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– This paper aims to explore questions and concepts encountered when developing policies for an institutional repository with a library publishing component.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore questions and concepts encountered when developing policies for an institutional repository with a library publishing component.
Design/methodology/approach
The author describes how publishing needs and library vision shape institutional repository policies, and demonstrates that the repository’s guiding policies are determined by the repository’s purpose and scope.
Findings
Policies for institutional repositories with publishing components will vary across institutions depending on the intended purpose of the repository, scope of publishing activities and institutional context.
Originality/value
The article is useful for those just exploring library publishing with repositories and those looking to revamp their policies to accommodate this new use, the paper explores theoretical and practical questions about this new use of repositories.
Details
Keywords
Somaly Kim Wu and Heather McCullough
The purpose of this paper is to presents the very recent development of e-journal publishing services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. In 2011, the J…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to presents the very recent development of e-journal publishing services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. In 2011, the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte created a new unit in the library, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL), which partners with faculty and graduate students in the use of digital and networked research tools to create, disseminate and store new knowledge. E-journal publishing and hosting are among the suite of services offered by the DSL, and we currently publish three journals (https://journals.uncc.edu/).
Design/methodology/approach
This report provides an overview of the context of our library’s decision to begin publishing journals, including a discussion of our university’s becoming more research-intensive, our university system mandating increased efficiencies and sharing research with the state citizens, and the library’s own goals of raising awareness of and supporting open access. Also outlined are the technical and procedural choices made, important activities undertaken to develop, define and publicize the new services, campus response to the service and next steps.
Findings
This report provides detailed accounting of how a large academic library implemented an electronic publishing service to support open access scholarship. Important activities such as marketing communication, policies development and technical/procedural activities are defined and results described. The report provides observation and lessons learned for academic libraries in development and support of electronic journals.
Originality/value
Library as the publisher is a new concept. This report will be of interest to many libraries who are considering offering publishing services and to libraries that currently offer publishing services.
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Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over publishers and…
Abstract
Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over publishers and have provided libraries with considerable economic advantage. They interact with publishers both as consumers of publishers’ products, with much stronger bargaining power than individual libraries hold, and, increasingly, as rival publishers themselves. Are consortia changing the relationship between academic libraries and publishers? Is the role of academic library consortia placing academic libraries in a position that should and will attract the attention of competition policy regulators? Competition policy prohibits buying and selling cartels that can negatively impact the free market on which the Canadian economic system, like other Western economies, depends. Competition policy as part of economic policy is, however, only relevant where we are concerned with aspects of the market economy. Traditionally, public goods for the greater social and cultural benefit of society are not considered part of the market economic system. If the activities of academic library consortia are part of that public good perspective, competition policy may not be a relevant concern. Using evidence gained from in-depth interviews from a national sample of university librarians and from interviews with the relevant federal government policy makers, this research establishes whether library consortia are viewed as participating in the market economy of Canada or not. Are consortia viewed by librarians and government as serving a public good role of providing information for a greater social and cultural benefit or are they seen from a market-economic perspective of changing power relations with publishers? Findings show government has little in-depth understanding of academic library consortia activity, but would most likely consider such activity predominantly from a market economic perspective. University librarians view consortia from a public good perspective but also as having an important future role in library operations and in changing the existing scholarly publishing paradigm. One-third of librarian respondents felt that future consortia could compete with publishers by becoming publishers and through initiatives such as open source institutional repositories. Librarians also felt that consortia have had a positive effect on librarians’ professional roles through the facilitation of knowledge building and collaboration opportunities outside of the home institution.
Ariana Santiago and Lauren Ray
The purpose of this paper is to describe programs that support open educational resources (OER) publishing in academic libraries. Insights, opportunities and challenges are shared…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe programs that support open educational resources (OER) publishing in academic libraries. Insights, opportunities and challenges are shared in relation to the broader open education movement.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides two case studies describing the development of OER publishing programs at large, public research universities – the University of Houston and the University of Washington. Each program takes an Author DIY approach to publishing support and is in the early years of supporting OER adoption and creation.
Findings
These case studies demonstrate the need for a greater focus on decision-making and workflows. They illuminate challenges and opportunities for librarians supporting OER initiatives, including adapting existing models of OER publishing, navigating institutional culture, moving OER programs beyond affordability and how to sustain and scale OER programs with shifting institutional support.
Originality/value
OER is an emerging program area within academic libraries, and much of the focus has been on outreach and advocacy around affordable alternatives to commercial textbooks. Little has been written about programmatic initiatives to support OER publishing. This paper adds unique examples to the OER literature and raises new questions around support for OER publishing.
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Heather Lea Moulaison and A. J. Million
This paper aims to, through an analysis of the current literature, explore the current state of the library e-publishing community and its approach to preservation. Libraries are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to, through an analysis of the current literature, explore the current state of the library e-publishing community and its approach to preservation. Libraries are increasingly proposing publishing services as part of their work with their communities, and recently, there has been a pronounced interest in providing electronic publishing (e-publishing) services. The library e-publishing community, however, has not systematically studied the need for the long-term preservation of the digital content they help create.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a reflective analysis of the literature, this paper explores the context and the evolution of e-publishing as a trend that aligns with public library missions; in doing so, it also explores implications for digital preservation in the context of these new services and identifies gaps in the literature.
Findings
Digital preservation is an important and worthwhile activity for library e-publishers; preservation of community-based author content cannot, however, be an afterthought and should be planned from the beginning. Future study should take into consideration the needs and expectations of community-based authors. Existing digital preservation guidelines also provide a point of reference for the community and researchers.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the understudied area of the importance of digital preservation to library e-publishing. In doing so, it also investigates the role of the library in supporting community-based authors when e-publishing through the library.
Details
Keywords
To identify the challenges facing libraries and information centres in Africa in the establishment of electronic publishing.
Abstract
Purpose
To identify the challenges facing libraries and information centres in Africa in the establishment of electronic publishing.
Design/methodology/approach
Historical/literature survey and observation were carried out by the researcher in‐depth. All literature surveyed showed that electronic publishing is still a new concept in Africa.
Findings
Apart from the information source that can be obtained through the internet and downloaded online, the actual acquisition of electronic books is still not possible. At present the libraries and information centres in Africa must have to rely more on print publication than the electronic.
Practical implications
Libraries and information centres in Africa must have to harness all available information resources, electronic/downloadable which are referred to as electronic aided publishing and print publishing to meet the growing users information needs. Libraries and information centres in Africa are advised to enter into networking with other libraries and information centres to prepare the environment for real electronic publishing in Africa.
Originality/value
Provides information on some of the challenges facing libraries in Africa.
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Keywords
Jairo Buitrago Ciro and Lynne Bowker
This is a comparative investigation of how university libraries in the United States, Canada and Spanish-speaking Latin America are responding to predatory publishing.
Abstract
Purpose
This is a comparative investigation of how university libraries in the United States, Canada and Spanish-speaking Latin America are responding to predatory publishing.
Design/methodology/approach
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings was used to identify the top ten universities from each of the US and Canada, as well as the top 20 Spanish-language universities in Latin America. Each university library's website was scrutinized to discover whether the libraries employed scholarly communication librarians, whether they offered scholarly communication workshops, or whether they shared information about scholarly communication on their websites. This information was further examined to determine if it discussed predatory publishing specifically.
Findings
Most libraries in the US/Canada sample employ scholarly communication librarians and nearly half offer workshops on predatory publishing. No library in the Latin America sample employed a scholarly communication specialist and just one offered a workshop addressing predatory publishing. The websites of the libraries in the US and Canada addressed predatory publishing both indirectly and directly, with US libraries favoring the former approach and Canadian libraries tending towards the latter. Predatory publishing was rarely addressed directly by the libraries in the Latin America sample; however, all discussed self-archiving and/or Open Access.
Research limitations/implications
Brazilian universities were excluded owing to the researchers' language limitations. Data were collected between September 15 and 30, 2019, so it represents a snapshot of information available at that time. The study was limited to an analysis of library websites using a fixed set of keywords, and it did not investigate whether other campus units were involved or whether other methods of informing researchers about predatory publishing were being used.
Originality/value
The study reveals some best practices leading to recommendations to help academic libraries combat predatory publishing and improve scholarly publishing literacy among researchers.
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Angela Brookens and Alan Poulter
It is proposed that public libraries have a duty to collect material from alternative publishers (in both fiction and non‐fiction and in all media) to better reflect the diversity…
Abstract
Purpose
It is proposed that public libraries have a duty to collect material from alternative publishers (in both fiction and non‐fiction and in all media) to better reflect the diversity of their communities. This paper aims to investigate the links between alternative publishing and public libraries in Scotland.
Design/methodology/approach
Two surveys (based on the 1979 Alternative Acquisitions Project) were carried out of alternative publishers and public libraries in Scotland. Questions were based on those in the 1979 survey, except where updated to accommodate new technologies. A literature review was also carried out to contextualise survey findings.
Findings
While alternative publishers and public libraries were aware of each other, alternative publishers faced many hurdles in getting their material in public libraries. For their part, public libraries were constrained by budgets but wanted to extend support for alternative publishing.
Originality/value
This paper re‐uses a previously tried and tested methodology to create a comparable and up to date study of an area of publishing often overlooked. Alternative publishing is revealed as a flourishing area, despite trends towards fewer and larger publishing outlets. Public libraries are seen as having a vital role to play in giving an outlet to alternative publishing.
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Faye Chadwell and Shan C. Sutton
The purpose of this article is to provide a vision for how academic libraries can assume a more central role in a future where open access (OA) publishing has become the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to provide a vision for how academic libraries can assume a more central role in a future where open access (OA) publishing has become the predominant model for disseminating scholarly research articles.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyze existing trends related to OA policies and publishing, with an emphasis on the development of repositories managed by libraries to publish and disseminate articles. They speculate that these trends, coupled with emerging economic realities, will create an environment where libraries will assume a major role in the OA publishing environment. The authors provide some suggestions for how this major role might be funded.
Findings
The trends and economic realities discussed will lead to new roles for academic librarians and will change the existing roles.
Originality/value
This article provides insights for academic libraries and their institutions to consider a dramatic shift in the deployment of subscription dollars from a dysfunctional and largely closed scholarly communication system to one that provides open, unfettered access to research results.
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Reggie Raju, Jill Claassen, Jeremiah Pietersen and Danielle Abrahamse
This paper investigates the fit for purpose of the flip model proposed by Max Planck Society and Plan S for the African environment. This flipped model is examined against the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the fit for purpose of the flip model proposed by Max Planck Society and Plan S for the African environment. This flipped model is examined against the backdrop of African imperatives, which is much broader than just flipping a journal pricing model from subscription to open access. This paper also seeks a viable alternative model that supports the growth of African scholarship and the dissemination thereof.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a descriptive research methodology, which allows for an in-depth analysis of a phenomenon. By using this method, this paper describes a flip model proposed by global north entities, which do not augur well for the growth of the OA movement in Africa.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that the global north centric flipped model exacerbates the inequality in the publishing landscape by further marginalizing the research voices from the global south. Africa is in dire need of an alternative that denorthernizes the publishing landscape, promote equity and equality, and is more inclusive of the research voices from Africa. South African academic libraries have demonstrated their willingness to experiment with and roll-out library publishing services. This proof of concept has been extended into a continental platform for the publication and dissemination of African scholarship.
Originality/value
This paper will be of interest to those who are grappling with viable alternatives to the current flip models, which include, inter alia, university leadership. This paper will also be of interest to global north libraries who are embarking on library publishing without the social justice obligation but are committed to the OA movement.
Details