OPEN ACCESS STRATEGY FOR 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY AND

PUBLIC LIBRARY USERPaper presented at SCANUL-ECS 2012 Conference, Nairobi, Kenya.

1-2nd June, 2012By: Rosemary Gitachu & Samuel Kungu

Daystar University

Introduction What is open access (OA)strategy? Why OA trategy? How open is open access? OA initiatives in Africa OA initiatives in Kenya Opportunities & Challenges Conclusion

OUTLINE

Traditionally, libraries have always served as access points for information

Have evolved- from closed stacks, shelf browsing, card catalogues, punch cards

To virtual libraries and open access systems 2004)

IT developments in 21st century have virtually turned everything virtual. The library and its users have also gone virtual (Anyira, 2011

INTRODUCTION

Bailey (2006) argues that to further the development of knowledge, scholars require access to relevant scholarly literature which is increasingly interdisciplinary, global, expensive, digital, and hidden behind technical walls to comply with license restrictions

He notes that scholars at the richest universities in the world have difficulty accessing the specialized literature that they need, while those at the poorest barely have any access at all

Intro cont

The new generation of users brings to the library a new set of expectations for service

New generation users who have had electronic access to information their entire lives commonly referred as “Digital natives” arguably approach e-resources differently than older “digital migrants.”

At the same time, as segments of the population grow older, their expectations of what they want from the library change. They emphasize access rather than ownership of information resources.

In the 21st century, the world is changing into a place where content is essentially freely available to everyone and It’s from this background that the libraries are also changing to meet the demand put on them through adoption of open access strategy in order to satisfy the modern library user .

Intro. cont

Open access is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, theses, scholarly monographs and book chapters (Suber, 2012)

In most cases there are no licensing restrictions on their use by readers. They can therefore be used freely for research, teaching and other purposes. The Budapest Open Access Initiative and the Berlin Declaration promote the development of open access electronic journals and digital repositories, free to anyone with internet access.

WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS STRATEGY?

Open access has found expression in the Institutional repositories, Open Educational Resources and Open Access Publishing

Institutional Repositories are digital collections capturing and preserving the intellectual output of a single or multi-university community. They are online databases of full-text content and are a way of communicating and sharing scholarly content

Open Education Resources (OERs) are largely based in universities and NGOs. They exist to facilitate ability of curriculum sharing. They are to be shared, exchanged, expanded and adapted with appropriate attributions and expansions.

WHAT IS OPEN ACCESS CONT.

The Internet has changed how we conduct and share research, primarily by increasing the global reach of scholarly communication

With scholarly journals, this possibility of expanding the circulation of knowledge has led to an “open access” movement that is making an increasing number of published, peer-reviewed articles free to read on-line

Authors, editors, publishers, and librarians are exploring new ways of using the Internet to make more of their research available in this way (Willinsky,2006).

WHY OPEN ACCESS STRATEGY?

In the recent years, there has been an increasing agitation by scientists, demanding that

Scientific publications be freed from the control of the commercial publisher

The missions of these initiatives include advocating that scientific publications be excluded from copyright protection and that scientific papers be made available to scientists and other users free of charge

Examples of these initiatives include copy left, open content (also open access publishing) and open source knowledge (software) (Nwagwu, 2009).

WHY OPEN ACCESS STRATEGY?

Open Access seeks to return scholarly publishing to its original purpose: to spread knowledge and allow that knowledge to be built upon

Price barriers should not prevent students (or anyone) from getting access to research they need

Funders invest in research in order to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, encourage innovation, enrich education, and stimulate the economy to improve the public good).

WHY OPEN ACCESS STRATEGY?

OA Publication is where the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use

It could be in the case where a complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving

HOW OPEN IS OPEN ACCESS?

There are several models of OA: 1. OA books/journals: Open access with no fees; no subscription fees; no author

fees; articles are free to read immediately upon publication These journals usually depend on institutional support or other funding sources. 2. Open Access where Author Pays: In this case there are no subscription fees, but

authors are required to pay a fee (after acceptance) to help offset the costs of publication

Author fees vary in size, and are often offset by grant funding. All articles are free to read upon publication.

3. Delayed Open Access: In this case there is a rolling embargo (usually of 6-12 months) on new content; if you wish to read new content immediately upon publication, you must subscribe to the journal. After the embargo period is over, all content is openly available.

4. Partial Open Access: Publisher may make portions of the journal openly available (e.g. all research articles), but may restrict other portions (for example, review articles) to subscribers only

5. Author Choice: This is where the journal has a traditional subscription model, but individual authors may choose to pay a fee and make their articles available for free on the journal's website.

 

HOW OPEN IS OPEN ACCESS?

OA strategy provide opportunity for Africa‘s to access otherwise inaccessible content in real time cntext

Availability of cheaper hardware and increasing Internet coverage in sub-Saharan Africa potentially increases access to reliable, up to date research literature, but prohibitive commercial on-line subscription costs for journals still a major constraint to majority poor

Despite its vast population, only 0.7%of research findings on internet come from Sub-Saharan Africa (Dr. Reggie Raju, 2010).

OPEN ACCESS IN AFRICA

Significant developments in ICT and over the last 10 years have enabled the creation of OA initiatives from public and private institutions in Kenya

The Kenyan government has been in the forefront gradually opening up its previously securely locked “no gone zone” information to the public. This promotes improved access to information which is fundamental to achieving good governance as it has strong, positive implications for transparency, accountability and equity.

OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVES IN KENYA

ICT infrastructure initiatives In 2009, the government spearheaded submarine fiber

optic cable project to link Kenya with the rest of the world This marked the beginning of access to cheaper internet

connections away from expensive satellite connectivity These efforts were expected to significantly lower

communication costs both for the internet and telephony and increase economic opportunities

This prompted the growth of ICT/digital villages in the country

In the near future the government plans to build the new Konza ICT City to keep pace with the rest of the world and make Kenya a regional technology hub and thus promote access to global information.

Open access initiatives in Kenya

Competition between the mobile telephone providers has drastically brought down the communication costs and enabling even the rural people to access information cheaply and timely.

In the education sector, students from all over Kenya can access through their phones or internet their final national examination results immediately they are announced by the minister of education.

 

Open access initiatives in Kenya

The government has digitized its legal content to enable its citizens to find, read or be explained public legal information anywhere in Kenya.

This enables the government to realize its mission of providing access to public legal information in order to aid the administration of and access to justice, the knowledge and practice of law and the development of jurisprudence.

The public can now access archive of the Kenya Gazette from 1906, Cases due to be heard in the Court of Appeal and the High Court in various stations throughout Kenya, The official law journal for Kenya featuring scholarly articles on contemporary legal issues and a quarterly digest of recent developments in Kenyan jurisprudence with a side serving of legal news and information.

Open access to legal Information in Kenya

In July 2011, the government of Kenya launched a new Open Government Data Portal.

This marked the beginning of platform where several large government data sets are made available to researchers and the general public through the internet.

This portal enables the individual citizen to access a wide range of government information including information on Education, Energy, Population, Poverty, Water and Sanitation and Health.

The project aims at facilitating informed decision making in a wide variety of areas.

It’s particularly useful to policy makers and business persons who require timely and accurate information in formulating policies and making business decisions.

It’s also helpful to scholars and students undertaking research work in various areas of the public sector.

In this way, the Kenyan Open Government Data Portal becomes a platform for innovation, for generating socials values, improving efficiencies within government and service delivery, and finally for providing a political feedback. (natascha on September 12th, 2011;

Kenya Open Government Data Portal

Implementation of open access strategy in Universities, research institutions and national libraries is at different stages using open source software eg. Greenstone, Dspace

Some universities are at initial stages while other are advanced. However, several institutions are actively developing their Institutional

repositories with an aim of improving the visibility, usage and impact of research conducted at the institution, showcasing academic research in Kenya as well as giving authors and their works immeasurable publicity and increased visibility.

The content from the IRs developed comprises of Audio and video files, films and images of distinguished staff, visitors, monuments, and buildings, Conferment of Honorary Degrees, Presentations/speeches from distinguished guests, Book chapters, Newspaper articles, Technical reports, theses and dissertations, gray literature, teaching modules, manuals and guides, Television broadcasts/interviews, Research articles, workshop materials and Working papers and conference proceedings.

Open access in Kenyan universities & research institutions

Several universities in Kenya have adopted OA initiatives to facilitate access to knowledge building and knowledge sharing.

Kenya Libraries & Information Services Consortium (KLISC) initiative enabled universities and research institutions in Kenya to access current scholarly publications at reduced cost-sharing platform through paid up subscription

The platform has provided opportunity for training re-training of librarians in open access among other information literacy fields.

Among trainings provided by KLISC is on D-Space and Greenstone open source software that has enabled several universities to establish digital libraries

Egs of digital libraries include Daystar University, Kenyatta University, and Strathmore.

The Daystar University IR is accessible to the public through the university intranet. So far the content captured includes examination past papers, conference papers, and thesis abstracts

This is a major project expected to digitize all research outputs by the university research community. Daystar has also implemented “Moodle” a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that Daystar educators use to create effective online learning site.

open access in Kenyan universities

Open access in universities and public libaries benefits students & community at large in a greater way

Open Access can ensure students get the best possible education and are not artificially limited by the selection of scholarly journals their campuses are able to provide

Access to free full text journal articles enables lecturers to teach students with current research materials and students are able to write research papers with ease as they carry out researching beyond the degree

The financially challenged students can as well access the journals for their academic growth.

OA OPPORTUNITIES

Researchers benefit from OA in that their output gains better visibility and higher impact for their scholarship

Studies have shown a significant increase in citations when articles are made openly available. The visibility helps them to avoid duplication of effort when the research output is effectively communicateD with one another and make results known to others in their field and beyond

Research is useless if it’s not shared: even the best research is ineffectual if others aren’t able to read and build on it

Text mining from millions of articles published every year is very beneficial by giving researchers an over-arching view of a particular field and uncovering trends and connections within their own field and between seemingly unrelated fields that no human researcher could discern.

OA OPPORTUNITIES

In Africa, perennial power disruptions are a hindrance to uninterrupted access to online information

False perceptions- that OA is cheap and of low quality hence some rely on paid up publications

Breakdown or vandalism of fiber optic- a unique challenge especially for developing countries

Inadequate ICT skills to optimally utilize the open access advantages.

Plagiarism –especially among students and researchers “lazy researchers, lazy students who want quick cut and paste disregarding copyright obligations.

OA CHALLENGES

ICT development has turned almost everything virtual and therefore, Open access strategy is the way to go for the 21st century university and public library user.

Conclusion