Open Access

by Walt Crawford

Overview

Academic libraries routinely struggle to afford access to expensive journals, and patrons may not be able to obtain every scholarly paper they need. Is Open Access (OA) the answer? In this ALA Editions Special Report, Crawford helps readers understand what OA is (and isn't), as he concisely

• Analyzes the factors that brought us to the current state of breakdown, including the skyrocketing costs of science, technolgy, engineering, and medicine (STEM) journals; consolidation of publishers and diminishing price competition; and shrinking library budgets

• Summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of different OA models, such as "Green," "Gold," "Gratis," "Libre," and various hybrid forms

• Discusses ways to retain peer-review, and methods for managing the OA in the library, including making OA scholarly publishing available to teh general public Addressing the subject from the library perspective while taking a realistic view of corporate interests, Crawford presents a coherent review of what Open Access is today and what it may become.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780838911068
Publisher:	American Library Association
Publication date:	03/08/2011
Series:	ALA Special Report
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.17(d)

About the Author

Walt Crawford is an internationally recognized writer and speaker on libraries, technology, policy and media. Author of numerous books, articles, and columns, Crawford is also the creator, writer and publisher of Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, an ejournal on the intersections of libraries, policy, technology and media published monthly since 2001. He maintains a blog on these and other issues, Walt at Random. He received the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication for Continuing Education in Library and Information Science in 1995, the ALCTS/Blackwell Scholarship Award in 1997, and the Gale Group Online Excellence in Information Authorship Award in 1998. A senior analyst at RLG for four decades, he previously wrote Library Technology Reports vol. 41, no. 2, “Policy and Library Technology.”