OA in the library collection

The challenges of identifying and managing open access resources

Chris BulockSouthern Illinois Universitycbulock@siue.edu

Nathan HosburghRollins Collegenhosburgh@rollins.edu

NASIG ҉ 2014

OA Resources

• Journals/articles: green, gold, hybrid, DOAJ • Books: DOAB, OAPEN, Google Books• Databases: PubMed Central, BioMed Central, ERIC• Data: gROADS, World Bank, data.gov, Dryad• Institutional repositories: Digital Commons Network, OpenDOAR

OA developments in Databases

Web of Science – OA facet (Gold only)

SpringerOpen, BioMed Central, Chemistry Central

UlrichsWeb – OA limiter

OA Book Collections

What is Web Scale Discovery doing with OA?

Library OA Management:

• Catalogs• ERMs/link

resolvers• Discovery

Systems• Guides/Lists

Challenges for libraries

Article vs. Journal (piece vs. container)

Resources incorrectly identified as OA

Bad/broken linksGeneral inconsistency

Insufficient tools to manage OA

Lack of sufficient metadata…

OA Metadata & Indicators

The Problem:Inconsistent information b/n publishers, vendors, link resolvers, libraries• Lack of a consistent visual icon• No standard descriptive language to indicate OA• No standard metadata elements• Lack of clear reuse rights

Importance: metadata enables discovery, linking, rights management, etc.

The Visual OA Icon

The most recognizable OA icon was created by PLOS.

However, there is no official OA logo and publishers are free to employ whatever logo suits them.

OA visual indicators

http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/access

Examples of metadata elements across publishers

BioMed Central OA metadata <meta name=”dc.rights”content=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/” />

Nature Publishing Group OA metadata <meta name=”access” content=”Yes” />

Springer OA metadata

<div class=”open-access”><span class=”help”>Open Access

<span class=”tooltip”> This content is freely available online to anyone, anywhere at any time.</span>

</span></div> (Hutchens, 2013)

Publishers currently provide “open access” articles with various use and re-use terms.

Some favor Creative Commons licenses, while others use proprietary licenses.

(NISO RP-22-201x)

Aggregators, repositories, and service providers have no standard for identifying articles that can be legitimately harvested.

Graphic courtesy ContentPlus

Readers have trouble figuring out what they can and cannot do with specific articles.

This article is OA, but can it beused in teaching?http://tinyurl.com/k3ldy3v

Organizations working on OA

http://www.sparc.arl.org/sites/default/files/hoii_guide_rev4_web.pdf

NISO: OA Metadata & Indicators Working Group• Libraries, publishers, organizations represented• Mechanisms for transmitting two key pieces of info:

• Free-to-read <free_to_read>• License reference <license_ref>

• NISO decided not to create a logo to be displayed

Approach provides framework for conveying essential information that addresses most common use cases.

Image courtesy Publishing Perspectives

<free_to_read> tag

• Viewable by any user without payment or authentication• No statement about re-use rights or restrictions• System would decide what visual indicator to show based on tag• Start and end dates accommodate models where content is free-to-

read for a period of time or after a particular date.<free_to_read start_date="2013-02-03" end_date="2013-10-03"/>

<license_ref> tag

• Includes a stable identifier expressed as an HTTP URI (URL)• Points to a human and/or machine readable license• License terms are not expressed in the metadata itself• Start_date attribute expresses how usage rights change over time• No corresponding end_date attribute; could introduce ambiguities• Neither the start_date attribute nor the license URI provide any

technical mean of enforcement

Mechanisms for distributing metadata• Creation and population of metadata elements to become part of

standard editorial workflow• Integral part of feeds to CrossRef• Included on hosting websites• Delivered in content feeds to third parties; A&I services• Metadata embedded in content itself: html META tags & PDF files• Within alerting channels, such as e-ToCs and RSS feeds• Work to incorporate into existing formats: ONIX, RDF, OAI-PMH, DC

Publishers Aggregators Libraries End Users

Flow of information, metadata, content

Flow of information, feedback, strategic requirements

UPSTREAM DOWNSTREAM

When in doubt, create a survey

• Goals:• Determine current state of practice• Identify areas for improvement

• At this point, how are librarians managing OA resources for their users, and what challenges do they face?

Main Questions

• What systems are libraries using?• Are those systems meeting needs?• What issues are libraries facing?• How do librarians view OA in relation to

their collections?

Kazuhisa OTSUBO http://bit.ly/1jYWSN8

Methodology

• 25 questions• Posted to• SERIALST• NASIG-L• ERIL-L• alcts-eres• alcts-nrmig• coll-assess

• 105 responses

1. Which of these categories best describes the institution your library serves?

29%

24%

26%

14%

1%2%5% Research University (high or very high

research activity)

Doctoral/Research University

Master's College or University

Baccalaureate College

Associate's

Special Focus Institution

Other

2. What is the enrollment at your library's institution in FTE?

29%

19%

11%

13%

28%Less than 5,0005,000-10,00010,000-15,00015,000-20,000Over 20,000

3. What Electronic Resources Management System do you use?

1%

23%

2%

4%5%

1%4%31%

30%

VerdeSerials SolutionsAlmaEBSCO ERM EssentialsCORALERMesOCLC WorldShare License ManagerOtherNone

4. What Link Resolver do you use?

44%

26%

15%

6%9%

1%

Serials Solutions

SFX

EBSCO LinkSource

WorldCat knowledge base

Other

None

5. What Web Scale Discovery System do you use?

25%

10%

18%

18%

29%SummonPrimoEbsco Discovery ServiceOtherNone

6. What Systems do you use for providing access to OA resources? (check all that apply)

Catalog

Link resolver

Web scale discovery system

Journal list

Database list

Subject guide

Webpage or guide dedicated to OA resources

Other

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

7. Do you provide access to Hybrid journals for which your institution may only access the OA articles?

10%

42%20%

27%Yes, we usually do

In a few cases, but not usually

Never

Not sure

8. Does your ERM facilitate the management of access to OA resources?

3%

36%

22%

27%

12%

unsureyesnodoesn't applysort of

9. What are some of the strengths or weaknesses of your ERM in relation to managing OA resources?

10%

17%

25%7%

33%

7%unsurestrengthweaknessneutraldoes not applyboth

9 cont. Strengths

• CORAL is flexible, we can track free resources just like we can track paid resources; we can create unique workflows for OA resources, if we need to• It has all the big sites, DOAJ, Hindawi, etc. (OCLC WorldShare License

Manager)• Major strength is large number of OA resources we can subscribe to

(Serials Solutions)

9 cont. Weaknesses

• It is difficult to use and very challenging (EBSCO ERM Essentials)• Incomplete; not always accurate / up-to-date (SerialsSolutions)• Cannot perform a search using "open access resources" as a search

category (SerialsSolutions)• The major weakness is the ERM has no integration with databases in

discovery systems (ERMes)

10. Does your link resolver facilitate the management of access to OA resources?

4%

75%

6%

15%

unsureyesnosort of

11. What are some of the strengths or weaknesses of your link resolver in relation to managing OA resources?

8%

11%

44%

19%

3%15%

unsurestrengthweaknessneutraldoes not applyboth

11 cont. Strengths

• Linking directly to the article without needing to jump through too many hoops (Innovative Interfaces WebBridge LR)• We don't have to try to track individual OA journals ourselves

(SerialsSolutions)• It's easy to identify the free targets in SFX b/c Ex Libris includes "FREE"

or "OPEN_ACCESS" in the target name (SFX)• Unlike the ERM we use, the management of the link resolver is

undertaken by the crowd in addition to us. So it is less work for us (SFX)• We can prioritize our linking so that the most reliable (ie paid)

resources would be chosen over OA links (EBSCO LinkSource)

11 cont. Weaknesses

• Lack of information in the knowledge base regarding when these OA resources move/cease - when they become subscription based (SFX)• Not always up to date and sometimes the link does not work (III)• Doesn't always separate out the hybrid journals; it's all or nothing as

far as activation goes (SerialsSolutions)• The OA collections are not managed by the vendor, which takes away

the biggest benefit of a knowledge base for us and for other smaller libraries (that the kb vendor will automatically update the default holdings and titles for us) (SerialsSolutions)

12. Does your Web Scale Discovery System facilitate the discovery of/access to OA resources?

3%

53%

7%

8%

28% unsureyesnosort ofdoesn't apply

13. What are some of the strengths or weaknesses of your web scale discovery system in relation to managing OA resources?

11%

17%

8%

17%

40%

8%unsurestrengthweaknessneutraldoes not applyboth

13 cont. Strengths

• Worldcat local allows us to automatically provide links to all open access collections available in OCLC.• It is aware of a large number of OA resources, more than we have in

our ERM (Summon)• There is a greater number of open access resources that can be made

known to our user than from our link resolver (WorldCat Local)

13 cont. Weaknesses

• Many of them are not relevant to us, either because of language, or b/c the resources are not full text (EBSCO Discovery Service)• A major weakness is the fact that resources are 100% on or 100% off,

we can't select which individual titles are included (Primo)• Cannot search solely for OA resources (WorldCat Local)

14. Do any of your licensed databases facilitate the discovery of/access to OA resources? If so, which databases and how?

19%

48%

24%

8%

1%

unsureyesnosort ofdoesn't apply

15. What challenges do you face in managing OA resources?

26%

22%

13%

10%

10%

8%

3%3% 3%3%

vol/awareness unreliable

selection criteria hybrid

staff system/kb

article level links users

vendor response not different

15 cont. Responses

• The library has no control of OA resources at all. • Assessing quality, discovering where they are, explaining OA

publication to patrons• Hybrid OA is a nightmare.• I have recently done a study of our e-access problems and 15% of

them directly involve OA resources.• No policies in place for managing them/providing access• Navigation on journal sites can be challenging• Having someone to manage it. I am already spread too thin

16. What would make the management of OA resources easier?

25%

14%

14%11%

10%

8%

6%6%

3% 2% central informationstandards/consistencyvendor helparticle metadatastaffdifferentiationpublishing changeevaluative toolsunsureautomation

16 cont. Responses

• Harry Potter, the Elder wand and the help of Dobby - the free elf• It would be easier if Serials Solutions would distinguish them more

clearly, in a separate search perhaps• Hybrid OA journal publishers would need to make data available

about the OA part of their journals so that libraries could link to that content.• A librarian position that could focus on this.• Standardized metadata for discovery• Removal of the partial OA category altogether.

17. Are there particular OA resources or collections that are problematic?

64%

36%

None in particular

Yes

17 cont. Responses

• Resources that are only partially OA or that convert from OA to requiring a purchase. • Foreign language collections• Academic, governmental, intergovernmental agencies• Traditional journal publishers that also offer OA publishing options.

18. Do you think the time and effort involved in providing access to OA resources is worthwhile?

66%5%

23%

6%

yesunsuresort ofno

18 cont. Responses

• As library budgets shrink, we must find ways to provide access to resources. Some of the OA resources are essential, high quality resources in their fields; others might be just predatory journals out to get some money from authors. But the library's role is to enable our users to access and discover resources; OA or purchased, the patron doesn't care.• I believe it is for some resources. We only work with OA resources

individually selected by our librarians, so we do not need to deal with all OA resources.• not really that much ... they can find them when they click on links

anyway.

19. How might OA metadata be improved to facilitate discovery and access?

28%

22%18%

16%

10%

6%

standards/consistencyunsurequalityarticle levelsharing recordsdata point

19 cont. Responses

• Metadata about Author paid content would be wonderful if link resolvers could then facilitate linking to this content. DOIs assigned to OA articles would also improve linking.• It would be great if the metadata were regularly reviewed (by an

editor or editorial board ?) and updated to all the link resolvers, OCLC or other cataloging agency.• Central repositories or clearinghouses where OA publishers would list

information about start and end dates, title changes, etc. KB vendors could monitor these listings

20. Do you consider OA resources part of your library’s collection?

71%

17%

12%

YesNoNot sure

21. Do you actively promote OA resources to your library staff & the campus community?

47%

42%

10%

YesNoNot sure

22. How do you promote OA resources?

Instruction Sessions

Programming

Guides specifically for OA resources

Subject guides

Advertising

Meetings with faculty or staff

Meetings with students

Other

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

23. Does the availability of OA resources currently have an impact on your collection development practices?

33%

40%

26%

YesNoNot sure

24. How have OA resources impacted your collection development practices?

Cancelled a title because content was OA.

Avoided purchasing a book because content was OA.

Cancelled title because comparable titles were OA.

Cancelled title because the relevant subject uses OA repository.

Purchased title because they supported OA

Diverted funds from coll dev to pay OA author fees

Other

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

25. Would you like to share anything else related to the management of OA resources?• The overblown promise of OA solving the serials pricing crisis has not

materialized• The growing scale and volatility of the marketplace are very

challenging. We're also struggling to determine in which discovery tools to focus our efforts.• I don't think that library or university administrators understand the

real costs related to making these resources accessible over time.• There is a lot of literature on open access, but I haven't yet come

across any truly comprehensive guides for how to include open access resources. Where to find them, how to support access, and how to discern the best resources.

Conclusions…

• NISO standards have potential for improving metadata in the information supply chain• Hybrid OA poses a significant challenge to libraries • Libraries need more granularity in management & discovery systems• OA collections must be curated; accurate; reliable• Crowd-sourced resources such as OAWAL hold promise• Growth of OA has not alleviated the serials crisis, but…• Libraries have important role via information supply chain; feedback

Further reading& discussion

• Burpee, J., & Fernandez, L. (2013, May 8). New frontiers in Open Access for Collection Development: Perspectives from Canadian Research Libraries. Paper presented at IFLA WLIC, Singapore.

• DRAFT NISO RP-22-201x: Open Access Metadata and Indicators http://tinyurl.com/kdtwuu2

• Hutchins, C. (2013). Open access metadata: current practices and proposed solutions. Learned Publishing, 26(3), 159-165.

• OAWAL: Open Access Workflows for Academic Libraries https://library3.hud.ac.uk/blogs/oawal/

• http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/12/05/as-hybrid-open-access-grows-the-scholarly-community-needs-article-level-oa-metadata/