Open Access: Prospectors Wanted!

1. Open Access: Prospectors Wanted! Amos Kujenga EIFL-FOSS National Coordinator, Zimbabwe akujenga@gmail.com Lupane State University, 22-23 October 2013 National University of Lesotho, 22 October 2013

2. Outline of Presentation • Definition of Open Access • Benefits of Open Access • Examples of Open Access tools • Organisations Supporting Open Access • Examples of Open Access-related Open Source Software • What librarians can do to promote Open Access

3. The Case for Open Access • The Crisis in Scholarly Communication is a major driving force behind the OA movement. (UNESCO, 2012). • In 2012 Harvard reported that its annual cost for journals from large journal publishers approached $3.75M (HARVARD, 2012)

4. Open Access Defined “Open Access (OA) is the provision of free access to peer-reviewed, scholarly and research information to all” (UNESCO, 2012).

5. OA Publishing • The “GOLD” route • Achieved through OA journals • The “GREEN” route • Achieved through repositories • The “Hybrid” route • OA articles in non-OA journals

6. OA Publishing • Through OA, researchers and students world-wide gain increased access to knowledge. • Publications receive more visibility and readership, and the potential impact of research is increased. • Increased access to, and sharing of knowledge leads to opportunities for equitable economic and social development, intercultural dialogue, and can potentially spark innovation. (UNESCO, 2012)

7. OA Publishing “Emerald supports authors' voluntary deposit of their own work. Once an article has been published by Emerald, an author may voluntarily post their own version of the article that was submitted to the journal (pre-print) or the version of the article that has been accepted for publication (post-print) onto their own personal website or into their own institutional repository with no payment or embargo period. Authors may also use their own version of the paper (pre-print or post-print) for their own teaching purposes.” (EMERALD, 2013)

8. Benefits of Open Access

9. Open Access Tools

10. Open Access Tools • The Directory of Open Access Repositories • An authoritative world-wide directory of Open Access repositories with academic materials. • OpenDOAR allows users to search for and/or within repositories • Accessible on http://www.opendoar.org/

11. Open Access Tools • The Directory of Open Access Journals • Aims to increase the visibility and ease of use of OA scientific and scholarly journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. • It aims to be comprehensive and cover all OA scientific and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee the content. • Aims to be THE one stop shop for users of OA journals. • Accessible on http://www.doaj.org

12. Open Access Tools

13. Open Access Tools • Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD • An international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of ETDs. • Site has resources for university administrators, librarians, faculty, students, and the general public. • Accessible on http://www.ndltd.org/

14. Open Access Tools • The Directory of Open Access Books • While most attention has been focused on scholarly works, OA is applicable in many contexts such as access to archival collections and scholarly books. • Aims to increase the discoverability of Open Access books.  • Accessible on http://www.doabooks.org/doab

15. Open Access Tools

16. Open Access Tools • UNESCO Global Open Access Portal (GOAP) • Presents a snapshot of the status of OA to scientific information around the world by country • Highlights critical success factors • Identifies key players, potential barriers and opportunities. • Updated through Country Representatives • Accessible on http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-and-platforms/goap/

17. Organisations Supporting OA • UNESCO • OA is at the heart of UNESCO’s goal to provide universal access to information and knowledge • Believes that increased access to, and sharing of knowledge leads to opportunities for equitable economic and social development, intercultural dialogue, and has the potential to spark innovation. (UNESCO, 2012) • Has a detailed Open Access Policy guidelines document.

18. Organisations Supporting OA • EIFL • Has an Open Access programme in place • Building capacity to launch OA repositories and to ensure their long-term sustainability. • Training, supporting knowledge sharing, and providing expertise on OA policies and practices • Empowering librarians and library professionals, scholars, educators and students to become OA advocates. • More information on http://www.eifl.net/openaccess

19. Organisations Supporting OA • IFLA • “IFLA affirms that comprehensive open access to scholarly literature and research documentation is vital to the understanding of our world and to the identification of solutions to global challenges and particularly the reduction of information inequality.” (IFLA, 2013) • Building capacity to launch OA repositories and to ensure their long-term sustainability.

20. Organisations Supporting OA • INASP • Extensive information on OA • Links to OA resources • Annual OA Week Competitions • More information on http://inasp.info

21. Organisations Supporting OA • African Digital Libraries Support Network (ADLSN) • A community of African practitioners and other interested actors with a common goal of supporting the preservation and dissemination of African content in digital form. • Specialises in Open Source repository software • Implementation • Training • Technical Support • More information on http://www.adlsn.org

22. Open Source Software (OSS) • Open Source Software (OSS) is software for which the source code, i.e., the raw programme lines as punched in by a programmer in some programming language, is freely available. Also, the software can be modified and redistributed freely according to a specified license. • The Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of OSS includes 10 conditions that the software must satisfy. See http://opensource.org/docs/osd • OSS is as free as “a free puppy”

23. OSS Advantages • No annual subscriptions • Software code is open to criticism and so weaknesses can be identified easily. • Users have the freedom to change/customise the software to meet their particular needs, e.g., languages translations, character sets. • No “black boxes” since the code can be viewed by anyone. • Empowers locals through technical skills development

24. OSS Disadvantages • Projects can die a natural death as people lose interest or new technologies come up. • When things go wrong, there is no one to blame, i.e., the software comes with no warranties. • OSS applications generally require a high level of technical skills to implement. • There is much work to be done when upgrading after customising a system.

25. Open Access & Open Source • “The parallels between this movement - what has come to be known as “open access” – and open source are striking. For both, the ultimate wellspring is the Internet, and…for both their practitioners, it is RECOGNITION – not RECOMPENSE – that drives them to participate.” (Eklektix, 2006)

26. Open Access & Open Source • Those affected by the Crisis in Scholarly Communication may also be affected by high costs of proprietary software. • OA uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to increase and enhance the dissemination of scholarship (UNESCO, 2012). This can be achieved through the use of OSS.

27. OA-Related Open Source Software

28. OA Repository Software

29. DSpace • Used to host the NUST IR (NuSpace) • Developed by MIT labs and Hewlett Packard • Content is organised into communities and collections • Has rich statistics module • Accepts all manner of digital formats • Users can upload content on their own • Arguably the most popular IR software globally • Rather difficult to install and configure • Large community of users worldwide

30. DSpace Example

31. DSpace Example • NuSpace accessible online on http://ir.nust.ac.zw:8080/jspui • Communities made up of faculties and units • Contains journal articles, conference papers, and speeches • Running on Fedora Linux server • Registered with OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) • Launched in 2012

32. DSpace Example

33. DSpace Example

34. Greenstone • Software for building and distributing digital library collections • A “general purpose” digital library software application, i.e., can be used for several purposes • Best suited for digital libraries as opposed to Irs • “Depositor” facility can be used to build an IR • First developed in 1996 by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato’s Computer Science Department

35. Greenstone • Has been heavily supported by UNESCO • Access to content can be controlled at collection and document level • Easy to install and configure • Large community of users

36. Greenstone • Aims to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries, and other public service institutions to build their own digital libraries (to avoid being read-only societies) • Aims to encourage the effective deployment of digital libraries to share information and place it in the public domain • More information on: • http://www.greenstone.org • http://www.adlsn.org

37. Greenstone

38. Greenstone Example

39. Greenstone Example • Used to host the NUST Digital Library (NuStone) • Accessible online on http://library.nust.ac.zw/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi • Includes several digital collections • Running on Linux server • Appears on the official Greenstone examples page: http://www.greenstone.org/examples

40. Greenstone Example

41. Greenstone Example

42. Open Journal Systems (OJS) Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research.

43. Open Journal Systems Features • OJS is installed locally and locally controlled. • Editors configure requirements, sections, review process, etc. • Online submission and management of all content. • Subscription module with delayed open access options. • Comprehensive indexing of content part of global system.

44. Open Journal Systems Features • Reading Tools for content, based on field and editors’ choice. • Email notification and commenting ability for readers. • Complete context-sensitive online Help support.

45. Open Journal Systems Example

46. SubjectsPlus • A web based set of programs that allow you to build subject guides PLUS other tools • Provides facilities to dynamically manage a library’s subject, course, and topic guides. • Subject guides help users to easily find resources related to their subject areas • Runs under the XAMP (Windows/Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP/Perl/Python) environment • Easy to install and configure – good in situations where technical skills are limited.

47. SubjectsPlus • More information on: • http://www.subjectsplus.com • http://splus.pbworks.com

48. SubjectsPlus Example • Accessible online on http://library.nust.ac.zw/sp/ • Guides arranged by academic department • Guides built by teams led by Faculty Librarians • Built as part of an EIFL FOSS pilot project • Running on Linux server

49. SubjectsPlus Example

50. SubjectsPlus Example