Navigating the Political Waters of Open Access Publishing in Libraries

In recent years, many libraries have forayed into the world of open access (OA) publishing. While it marks a major shift in the mission of libraries to move from providing access to content to generating and creating content ourselves, it still involves the same basic values regarding access to information. The environment has changed, and libraries are adapting with new approaches and new staff skills to promote these fundamental values. The authors selected nineteen libraries and conducted phone interviews with a specific list of questions, encouraging discussion about how each library approached being a publisher. This chapter examines the politics and issues involved, and makes recommendations for defining our roles in this new territory. The authors highlight the approaches various libraries have taken—and the challenges faced—in selecting a platform, writing a business plan, planning for preservation, educating researchers about OA publishing, working with a university press, marketing, and navigating staff training issues. The chapter concludes with recommendations for areas of focus and future research

Transcending Institutions and Borders: 21st Century Digital Scholarship at K-State

Digital scholarship of the 21st century transcends institutions and borders with its freedom from print and physical locations. This case study reviews aspects of establishing a sustainable digital scholarship center, supporting open access through the institutional repository (K-State Research Exchange - K-REx) and an open access publishing platform (New Prairie Press – NPP) along with other outreach efforts. The Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship (CADS) at K-State Libraries serves our campus community, but digital scholarship extends K-State\u27s impact far beyond Manhattan, Kansas. Highlighting the scholarship at our campus is only one small piece of the landscape. Collaboration on campus with both faculty and students includes working with authors, editors, and site administrators; but our roles in educating, publishing, supporting, and managing open access, including data management, publishing funds and textbook initiatives, have broader implications. This paper illustrates strategies that support all types of digital scholarship and contends that single direct connections to K-State can translate into partnerships which have regional, national, and international reach

A home-grown contract database

This chapter describes the implementation and use of a home-grown database used by K-State Libraries to track licensing terms for electronic resources

Managing e-publishing: perfect harmony for serialists

This paper describes two serialists who use skills honed in their respective serials departments to show how those skills adapt to the world of e-publishing. The presenters will discuss their roles in e-publishing and their respective university presses and library publishing programs. How have their libraries reorganized to provide resources for supporting these new roles? The daily work of an e-publishing librarian will be reviewed, including an overview of working with Digital Commons and Open Journal Systems (OJS), two e-press platforms. The presenters will also discuss funding and sustainability of the programs and working with open access and subscription titles

Making ereference works findable

The Internet has significantly changed how libraries provide and library users access information. Libraries increasingly acquire electronic reference (eReference) books while collection of their print counterparts is diminishing. eReference books are not found on libraries' reference shelves and may easily go unnoticed. Libraries face the dilemma of how to make eReference books more accessible to patrons since they are buried in the catalog. K-State Libraries are addressing this challenge by utilizing enhanced metadata behind OPAC records to create browseable eReference lists. The lists are also published as RSS feeds which can be pushed to users. The article describes an approach that does not require programming skills and may be used by subject librarians and catalogers to make eReference books more accessible to patrons

Making E-Reference Books Findable

The Internet has significantly changed the ways in which information is provided, particularly in libraries. Libraries are buying increasing numbers of electronic reference (e-Reference) materials which are buried in the catalog or on web pages, not to be easily found by the user. Unlike print reference books, e-Reference books are not found on libraries’ reference shelves and, therefore, are underused. Libraries face the dilemma of how to make e-Reference books more accessible to patrons. Kansas State University Libraries are addressing this challenge by using the powerful metadata behind OPAC records to create browsable e-Reference lists. These lists are also published as RSS feeds which can be pushed to users. This article describes the low tech approach used by subject librarians and catalogers to make e-Reference books more accessible to patrons

Through the gateway: reporting on collections

Librarians are frequently required to support collection and broader management decisions. Line staff and managers need clear and complete data that can be easily accessed and manipulated in order to understand current and historic situations and trends. Presentation of that data must be visually compelling and easily used to support reporting to administrators, funders, and accrediting bodies. The presenters discussed the reports development process, the need for dialogue amongst stakeholders not only to retrieve useful data but also to analyze it, and provided examples of a variety of collections-related reports