Nine suggestions for librarians on how to cancel journal subscriptions when rising prices and shrinking budgets make it necessary. Here's the ninth:
Take advantage of a teachable moment: Discuss with faculty how you see their students doing research. Help them understand how much full-text databases and the familiarity of Google have influenced undergraduate research practices. Talk about what's behind the crazy escalation in the cost of journals. Tell them how to find journals they can publish in that are open access and why that may make their own research more likely to be cited. You could even make an opportunity to take your own stand —as we did [at Gustavus Adolphus College] when our library passed its own open access pledge....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/28/2009 08:07:00 PM.
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.
