Sarah Thomas, Advancing Scholarship Through Library Collaboration, in Eerland Kolding Nielson et al. (eds.), Advancing Scholarship Through Library Collaboration, in Die Innovative Bibliothek: Elmar Mittler zum 65. Geburtstag, Muenchen: K.G. Sur, 2005, pp. 67-75. Self-archived August 23, 2005. Thomas is the University Librarian at Cornell University. (Thanks to Joe Esposito.)
Abstract: This paper traces the history of library cooperation, from early attempts such as the Farmington Plan through successes in tech services and collection development, and from national to international cooperation. The author suggests that the only way libraries can now successfully confront the societal and economic pressures they are now facing is through continued cooperation. This continued cooperation might be realized in the creation of regional repositories, the pooling of information and data, or continued collaboration with creators of information via open access and institutional repositories. Every division of the library, including acquisitions, cataloging, and digitization, will need to be involved in this continued collaboration for the library to continue its success in the twenty-first century.
From the body of the paper:
More recently, [librarians] have been building institutional or digital repositories to make available a broad spectrum of original works—electronic books and articles, but also multimedia, coursework, data, and other types of materials. With tools such as DSpace and Fedora to enable repository development, librarians are serving as potential catalysts in the deconstruction of the present journal publication model, which, in its existing form is economically unsustainable. They facilitate the uncoupling of the publication of research from peer review, tenure and promotion decisions, and simple dissemination. Journal and e-book management software enables the library to enter into the realm of the publisher even more directly, but with a different motivation than commercial publishers seeking a return on investment. The widespread availability of open source software such as DSpace, Fedora, and DPubS allows multiple institutions to participate in the maintenance and enhancement of products in a way that distributes the cost effectively and inexpensively. This in turn will allow librarians to become a new breed of publisher. The Open Access movement promoted by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Research Coalition) is taking hold, with an increasing number of journals being made freely available to readers. Research libraries have, therefore, at least two modes for disseminating scholarship in a low- or no-barrier form. They can build repositories for local or disciplinary-based information, which then, using protocols such as OAI (Open Archives Initiative), can be harvested and federated by search engines. Alternatively, they can use journal management software to bring the editorial efforts of scholarly societies, universities and academic departments to the public. In either case, they contribute to advancing timely, economical access to scholarly literature in way that has the potential to transform the present unsustainable construct into a vibrant endeavor. They bring to the table their experience with metadata, digital libraries, content, and users in a way that strongly enhances collaboration with authors, editors, and peer reviewers.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/04/2005 08:21:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
