Open access. Why would an intermediary be involved?

Open access presents some interesting challenges for both libraries and publishers. While the publisher side has been very well documented over the past few years, the impact open access will have on the rest of the content supply chain has been less well explored, particularly in terms of the potential role of an intermediary like Swets.

There are important and functional processes that a third-party service provider might help with related to the growth of open access publishing. In the case of increasing levels of gold open access papers, there will be an equal growth in the processing of author fees (article processing charges, or APCs), which will require high levels of administration and often brand new workflows for both libraries, publishers and funding organizations. In Swets’ case, our global support infrastructure could provide real value here by taking the time-consuming tasks out of the hands of the library so they can focus on the delivery of content and helping their authors and readers directly, providing information, training and support for publishing and discovering open access content.More...........

California's Open Access Bill Encounters A Hurdle, But Gathers Support

California's landmark open access bill, the California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (AB 609), has stalled in the State Senate. But take heart—it is far from dead.

Due to some procedural glitches, the Senate Governmental Organization (G.O.) Committee hasn't been able to officially sign off on the bill. At last week's hearing, the bill barely missed out on a quorum, getting five yes votes and zero no votes. (The other members abstained.) However, the bill was granted reconsideration by the Chair of the G.O. That means the Committee will pick up the bill in January 2014, exactly where it left off.

That also means our work is far form over. This kind of delay can often be the vehicle for a slow, quiet death. But we, and the bill many other supporters, won't let that happen to open access.

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Open Access...An Overview

LIS Links...........

Some Useful Resources for Library and Information Professionals in India

Open Data: Empowering the Empowered or Effective Data Use for Everyone?

The open data movement in the area of access to public (and other) information is a relatively new but very significant, and potentially powerful, emerging force. It has now been widely endorsed by among others Tim Berners-Lee generally acknowledged as the Father of the World Wide Web. The overall intention is to make local, regional and national data (and particularly publicly acquired data) available in a form that allows for direct manipulation using software tools as for example, for the purposes of cross-tabulation, visualization, mapping and so on.

The underlying idea is that public (and other) data, whether collected directly as part of census collection or indirectly as a secondary output of other activities (crime or accident statistics for example) should be available in electronic form and accessible via the web. There are significant initiatives in this area underway in the US , the UK and Canada among many many other jurisdictions.....more http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowered-or-effective-data-use-for-everyone/

wg_open_course.pdf (application/pdf Object)

wg_open_course.pdf (application/pdf Object):
Report of the Working Group on Open Access and Open Educational Resources

154-157.pdf (application/pdf Object)

154-157.pdf (application/pdf Object):
Open Access Initiative in India..........summaries the Open Access Publishing models in India...........