The document discusses the evolving roles of university librarians in the context of open access (OA) and scholarly communication. It emphasizes the need for librarians to adapt their skills and collaborate with various stakeholders to enhance information accessibility and support OA initiatives. As libraries transition to support OA, new responsibilities and opportunities arise, necessitating a proactive approach and continuous education in relevant areas.

1. University Librarianship in the
Open Access World and the Changing Roles
Dr. Burcu Keten, ODTÜ
Gültekin Gürdal, İYTE
İlkay Holt, ÖzÜ
BOBCATSSS Conference 23-25 January 2013 , Hacettepe University

2. Scope
• Scholarly Communication & Open Access (OA)
• OA in Academic Environment
• University Libraries
• University Librarians
• Changing Roles
• Required Skills
• Changing Roles: Cooperation with Management
• Changing Roles: Cooperation with Academics
• Changing Roles: Cooperation with IT Units
• Changing Roles: Cooperation with LIS Departments
• Changing Roles: Changing Information Services
• Conclusion

3. Scholarly Communication & OA
“Scholarly communication is the process of
academics, scholars and researchers sharing and
publishing their research findings so that they
are available to the wider academic community
and beyond.”
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarly_communication, 15th January 2013
“Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free
of charge, and free of most copyright and
licensing restrictions.”
Retrieved from http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm 15th January 2013

4. OA in Academic Environment
• Increases visibility, usage and impact
• No cultural, geographical, financial restrictions
• Ensures publicly funded research available to
anyone
• Frees most copyright & licensing barriers
• Brings alternative business models
• Encourages self archiving
• Involves policy makers, funders, executives,
researchers, publishers, librarians, readers...

5. University Libraries
• 3rd generation universities: a cycle between
research-industry-public.
“...Institutions where interdisciplinary researches would be
prominent, joint projects would be developed, and products
would be designed and produced to make them cradle of
economic activities...” Wissema, J. G. (2009). Üçüncü Kuşak Üniversitelere Doğru: Geçiş Döneminde
Üniversiteleri Yönetmek (N. Devrim & T. Belge, Trans.). İstanbul : Özyeğin Üniversitesi Yayınları.
• Its libraries: advanced technology, attached to
research & teaching, hi-tech services, learning
commons, liaison services

6. University Librarians
• Creates an information ecosystem and offers
information services based on expectations of
their users within the framework of the
university’s vision
• Establishes and maintains a realible information
environment
• Enables the accessibility of scholarly information
• Ensures that scholarly communication takes place
• Adapts to their changing roles
• Develops new skills and expertise

7. Changing Roles
The support given to open access initiatives leads
to new service fields in the libraries and impose
new roles on librarians.
Librarians’ awareness imposes new responsibilities
on librarians for scholarly communication,
scholarly circles, national and international
platforms, and institutions and libraries they work
for.

8. Required Skills
• Understanding of scholarly communication and
its dynamics at policy making level
• Effective communication skills
• Understanding of copyright and licensing issues
• Expertise in collection development
• Project management, team work
• Data management
• System implementation and maintenance

9. Changing Roles:
Cooperation with Management
• Gain executives and relevant committees’
support for OA related activities both
institutionally and publicly
• Participate in the development of university
policy on scholarly communication
• Communicate the value of depositing scholarly
and creative output into OA sites
• Monitore scholarly communication trends and
issues both nationally and internationally

10. Changing Roles:
Cooperation with Academics
• Inform them about how OA can increase
visibility, usage and impact of their research
• Consult them in copyrigh and licensing issues
• Encourage them to self-archive
• Feed them with regular usage statistics
• Provide them OA resources for teaching &
research purposes
• Offer them info-lit sessions for their classes

11. Changing Roles:
Cooperation with IT Units
• Develop policy for institutional repository (IR)
• Create and maintaine IR
• Show leadership in metadata and OAI standars
• Encourage use and creation of open educational
materials
• Measure the impact of OA output
• Preserve institution’s cultural heritage
• Set up OA journal publishing

12. Changing Roles:
Cooperation with LIS Departments
• Need for continues education programs on
scholarly communication and its related topics
• Need for post graduate programs specializing in
subjects such as scholarly communication, OA, IR,
data management, copyright & IP
• Need for in-house training for university librarians
• Need to play an active role in the change process
which the scholarly publication system undergoes

13. Changing Roles:
Changing Information Services
• Proactive approach to the research community
• Developing value added discovery tools
• Cooperating and working closely with researchers internally
• Creating reliable information environments
• Managing metadata and the repository content
• Educating and supporting authors in copyright related issues
and author addendums to the publishing contracts.
• Playing a more active role in compiling and distributing
collection contents
• Taking role in promoting intellectual output of the the
institution
• Enhancing current information literacy programs

14. Conclusion
• Librarians’ high awareness triggered number of
good practices in OA world and they continue to
be a key player, make a great impact in this area.
• It is an opportunity to bring the university
library world much closer to the research
community.
• New area of expertise and skills are now
required.
• Change can be frightening but it is challenging.

15. Thanks!
Q & A