Open Access News

How Open Access is changing the role of librarians

Created on Wednesday, 11 July 2012 07:08

The Croatian Open Access publisher InTech has surveyed over 200 librarians to explore their awareness of, and attitudes to, open access publishing. Over 80% of the respondents worked in academic institutions and the majority (56%) were based in Europe.

Of particular interest are the anticipated changes librarians feel OA will bring to their roles.

The survey revealed high levels of awareness of OA - 95% of the respondents stated they were very or quite familiar with the OA model.

Librarians highlight a number of benefits of OA publishing models:

• Ease of access to content
• Increased visibility, usage and impact for authors
• Improved sharing and collaboration
• Improved public engagement with research
• Broad benefits for society of improved access to research
• Improved return on investment for funders of research

Additionally:

• 78% of respondents support OA publishing, with only 5.5% stating they oppose the model.
• 95% believe OA is already delivering benefits, or will do in the future.

Source: Information Today