Developing Openness through Scholarly Communications in the Academic Library

Abstract

Librarian perspectives range from protective and permissions-oriented about resources to being very open about sharing information. As librarian roles evolve, their values, identities, and responsibilities are changing as well. This poster outlines some ways academic librarians are infusing aspects of openness into their work. Librarians are focusing on open activities such as promoting and planning in support of instruction, discovery, research, copyright, preservation, and more. The poster highlights the team effort needed to support openness efforts. Openness in moving to open data, open research, open publishing, open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education in general, is a growing strategic goal and forward-thinking endeavor for many, but not all, librarians. The poster includes preliminary results of a survey of librarian perceptions and attitudes about use and support for open educational resources. Changes in perception leading to updated vision, mission, values, and action are highlighted. Best practices for developing a scholarly communications unit to support OER, an open institutional repository, and open scholarship are shared, along with informal assessment and future plans for supporting digital scholarship initiatives.