LSE's "request a copy" service: widening access to research both within and beyond academia

The 2016 introduction of HEFCE’s open access research policy and specifically its “deposit on acceptance” message has led to a large volume of restricted-access items being placed in institutional repositories. Dimity Flanagan reports on how LSE Library’s “request a copy service” has offered would-be readers a way to overcome this obstacle to research, and how the data the service provides offers rich insights into what items are being requested, where from, and even a glimpse into how they might be used

Measuring the impact of digitized theses: a case study from the London School of Economics

This study tests the assertion that the online dissemination of theses has a positive impact on the research profile of the institution and sets out to gain a greater understanding of how digital theses fit into the scholarly resources landscape. The year-long study combined primary and secondary research and was undertaken with the London School of Economics, based on its programme of theses digitization. The paper outlines the types of metrics an institution may use to measure the impact of its corpus of digitized dissertations and examines how these metrics may be generated. Findings included: a higher volume of theses attracts more traffic; Google’s strong indexing capabilities make it the most frequentlyused tool for discovery of digital theses; primary conclusions are that there is little correlation between downloads and citations of digitized theses; having a digital thesis collection enhances the reputation of the institution; although they recognize that digital theses are a valuable research tool, postgraduates and academics widely believe that making them available affects future publication opportunities; building and maintaining a digital thesis collection makes considerable ‘hidden’ work for librarians in terms of training about copyright and permissions. Some conclusions: better statistics are needed, especially of citations; institutions need to promote digital thesis collections better; more work needs to be done on whether digitizing theses impairs authors’ chances of traditional publication and on how digital theses affect and are affected by the open access movement

International Open Access Week 2016: your library can help open up your research to the world

At the midway point of #OAWeek2016, Lucy Lambe and Dimity Flanagan highlight the work being done by the LSE library’s research support team to open up the School’s research to as wide an audience as possible. Whether through funding an open access monograph or via the institutional repository, there is much that libraries can do to support open research

Open and Engaged: Open Access Week at the British Library

One of the key arguments in favour of open access to research is that the public should have the right to read the results of publicly funded research. While much effort is put into creating policies, workflows and business models to enable openness, are we succeeding in engaging the public with research? On Monday 22 October 2018, the British Library celebrated the beginning of Open Access Week with the event, Open and Engaged (see #openengaged). It brought together representatives from higher education, funding organisations, libraries, charities, publishers, NHS, government, industry and independent research organisations such as museums and archives. The purpose of the event was to broaden the conversation around open access from a largely compliance-driven approach to one of engaging wider audiences through open research

Is there a role for ILL in an open access world – a British Library perspective

The 2017 UUK report on the transition to open access reported that 54% of UK-authored articles in 2016 were accessible within 12 months of publication. This is compared to 32% of articles authored in 2014. Over the past five years, open access research has flourished in an environment of funding mandates and intensive advocacy within the higher education sector. While this phenomenal rate of growth has not been matched globally, there has still been a 7% rise from 2014 to 2016, bringing the global proportion of OA articles authored in 2016 to 32% after 12 months from publication. If this pace of change continues, it does beg the question as to what the future will look like for resource discoverability and access. While green OA can sometimes remain hidden from users, more tools continue to enter the market to improve OA discoverability, reducing some of the need to use ILL services. If ILL is no longer the answer to content access in the 21st century, how can libraries facilitate improved access in the future? As requests through the British Library’s document supply service decline, the BL has realised that future is already upon us

Lifting the lid on global research impact: implementation and analysis of a Request a Copy service

In 2016, we activated the EPrints Request a Copy function in our institutional repository LSE Research Online (LSERO). As a mediated service, the implementation was a trial to ascertain the demand for restricted content. Since implementation in August 2016, we have received over 450 requests. The email addresses of users and their reasons given for requesting a paper offer a considerable and previously untapped source of qualitative data on the potential impact of LSE research. The Request a Copy button also allows us to gain a greater understanding of which disciplines are more popular pre-publication, and which are more sought after by those outside of academia, ranging from international organisations to local government departments. In this 10x10 talk, I will present key findings from our analysis of these data, including: • Key user groups • Accessibility and discoverability issues • Issues around the purpose and role of repositories • The reach and potential impact of LSE research beyond academia This service has allowed us to maximise the value and benefits of our repository through giving us a more insightful understanding of our users and an improved awareness of the global dissemination of LSE research

Not just a British library: enabling a global discovery experience

Within the walls of the British Library lies one of the greatest collections in the world. However, the value of the British Library lies not only in the preservation of heritage items, but also in its determination to keep pace with the many changes in the global information environment. As more content becomes open access, the British Library has an opportunity to move beyond the confines of the physical space and connect users to content whether they live in the UK or overseas. This presentation will look at what the British Library is currently doing to improve discovery through its own search systems, as well as initiatives to improve the discovery of open access content beyond academia. It will also include an introduction to the British Library’s new repository service, a service that enables research undertaken by the British Library and partner organisations to become more discoverable through quality metadata, persistent identifiers, enhanced accessibility and long-term preservation

Open Access Discovery Workshop at the British Library

The solid foundation of the open access movement is the importance of public access to research, but it is clear that discovery of this open research remains one of the barriers to fulfilling this goal. There are many organisations making progress in this space and it is not always easy keeping up to date with the projects that are currently underway, or even knowing about what is in the pipeline. In order to improve opportunities for collaboration and alignment, the British Library and Arcadia Fund brought together key organisations in this space to discuss what we want to prioritise as a group and what challenges are being faced

Open Access Discovery Roadmap 2018

The solid foundation of the open access movement is the importance of public access to research, but it is clear that discovery of this open research remains one of the barriers to fulfilling this goal. There are many organisations making progress in this space and it is not always easy keeping up to date with the projects that are currently underway, or even knowing about what is in the pipeline. In order to improve opportunities for collaboration and alignment, the British Library and Arcadia Fund brought together key organisations in this space to discuss what we want to prioritise as a group and what challenges are being faced. The emphasis on sustainability shaped the decisions made about the next steps after the workshop. In order to attract more funding for open infrastructure, there is a need to efficiently convey all the important work these organisations are currently undertaking. Therefore, the group collaborated on a document to outline the major projects in the pipeline over the next two years