Academic libraries should be considered research tools, co-evolving with technology. The Internet has changed the way science is communicated and hence also the role of libraries. It has made it possible for researchers to provide open access (OA) (i.e. toll-free, full-text, online access, web-wide) to their peer-reviewed journal articles in two different ways: (i) by publishing in them in OA journals, and (ii) by publishing them in non-OA journals but also self-archiving them in their institutional OA archives. Librarians are researchers' best allies in both of these strategies. Examples of these strategies are described. We conclude that an official mandate for OA provision is necessary to accelerate its growth and thereby the growth of research usage and impact worldwide.

With the rise of alternate discovery services, such as Google Scholar, in conjunction with the increase in open access content, researchers have the option to bypass academic libraries when they search for and retrieve scholarly information. This state of affairs implies that academic libraries exist in competition with these alternate services and with the patrons who use them, and as a result, may be disintermediated from the scholarly information seeking and retrieval process. Drawing from decision and game theory, bounded rationality, information seeking theory, citation theory, and social computing theory, this study investigates how academic librarians are responding as competitors to changing scholarly information seeking and collecting practices. Bibliographic data was collected in 2010 from a systematic random sample of references on CiteULike.org and analyzed with three years of bibliometric data collected from Google Scholar. Findings suggest that although scholars may choose to bypass libraries when they seek scholarly information, academic libraries continue to provide a majority of scholarly documentation needs through open access and institutional repositories. Overall, the results indicate that academic librarians are playing the scholarly communication game competitively.

How do the vendors and stakeholders feel about OA?

Literature review of librarian viewpoints on publishing principles to open access.

This article is actual implementation of a workflow within a college library to implement Open Access

Feedback for open access in academic libraries. Literature review. For the past nine months, Graham Stone and Jill Emery have been promoting OAWAL: Open Access Workflows for Academic Librarians on a blog site, through Facebook[TM], through Twitter[TM], and at in-person events in both the USA and UK to raise awareness of open access management issues in academic libraries and in an attempt to crowdsource best practices internationally. The in-person meetings used a technique known as the H Form, which can be applied to other areas of academic librarianship. This overview outlines the current project, focusing on feedback received, highlights some of the changes that have been made in response to that feedback, and addresses future plans of the project.

Basics of Open access in Academic libraries. "A commitment to scholarly work carries with it a responsibility to circulate that work as widely as possible: this is the access principle. In the digital age, that responsibility includes exploring new publishing technologies and economic models to improve access to scholarly work. Wide circulation adds value to published work; it is a significant aspect of its claim to be knowledge. The right to know and the right to be known are inextricably mixed. Open Access can benefit both" (Willinsky, 2010). Increasingly, this capacity to close the gap between developed and less developed countries through access to information becomes more important for educational, cultural, and scientific development.

The presenters focused on the benefits and challenges of implementing an open-source electronic resource management (ERM) system called Centralized Online Resource Acquisitions and Licensing (CORAL) at their libraries. Originally developed by the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries, CORAL offers libraries the option to reorganize ERM workflows and collect information about their electronic resources into one central place without having to commit funding for new software from the ever-shrinking library budget. CORAL currently includes four modules: Organizations, Resources, Licensing, and Usage Statistics. In addition to the challenges that are faced in any ERM system implementation, such as collecting and preparing data and training staff, issues specific to using an open-source application in an academic library were presented.w:

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate open source software (OSS) for digital libraries and collection management and to propose different utilization scenarios based on the characteristics of the tools. Design/methodology/approach - The tools are assessed on the basis of their technical features and options, the type of the content they manage, the support for common library operations such as cataloging and circulation, the searching support and the interoperability options. Then they are evaluated by users and finally a number of usage scenarios are analyzed based on the results of the evaluation. Findings - The basic findings of the study is that open source digital library and collection management tools offer advanced operations and support various metadata and interoperability protocols with easy and user-friendly interfaces. Most of the tools are extensively used under various settings and establishments already. Language support for the interfaces should be extended with more languages and some tools with limited operations should be improved to be of practical use. Practical implications - The findings of the paper could be used support the selection of specific open source tools for various types of establishments. Originality/value - The study reviews the characteristics of a few OSS for digital libraries and collection management and reveals their specific strengths and weaknesses. It also presents a number of realistic scenarios and proposes the usage of specific tools based on time, technology and staff constraints

The article offers suggestions for academic libraries concerning the application of Creative Commons (CC) licenses for sharing learning objects or work published online by a library. Topics discussed include information on global nonprofit organization Creative Commons, licenses in use by several libraries of the University of California (UC), and reduction in the number of direct requests to use online content of the library..

Lawrence Lessig's videos are required reading but relevant to my topic. He discusses remix culture for the youth.

Abstract: This article reports on the results of a national survey of academic librarians and library staff (N=226) in the United States about their awareness of various copyright policies, partnerships with campus groups to address copyright issues, and training needs. A majority of the survey respondents reported that they have answered copyright-related questions in the workplace, yet only 49% (n=98) of the respondents perceived they were prepared to provide copyright information to library users. Awareness of various copyright policies among librarians and staff members varied, including a reported minimal awareness of the T.E.A.C.H. Act. In addition, survey respondents expressed the desire for more copyright-related training. In light of these findings, the present study extends the existing literature and offers recommendations to help better prepare a "copyright confident" or "copyright responsive" academic library workforce.

Objective: This paper presents the results of data gathered on copyright questions asked at an academic health sciences library. Methods: Collected data include questioner's status or discipline, the subject of the questions, the types of activities that the questioners were engaged in, the communication mode, and the length of time it took to answer the questions. Results: Overall results showed most questions were about permissions. Staff asked the most questions, followed by faculty and students. Conclusions: Copyright education is needed at universities, and further analysis of queries will determine the direction of the education.

Over the next few years, librarians at many Australian universities will participate in the creation of local Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This article aims to prepare librarians for this task. It begins by summarising the development of the MOOC concept and then moves on to review the growing literature on MOOCs and librarians. It concludes by looking at possible developments relating to copyright.

Great article from Gale: ARL is Association of Research Libraries. In December 2009 the Libraries Copyright Task Force (LCTF) of Colorado State University Libraries (CSUL) presented its findings to the CSUL interim dean and assistant deans. As part of its charge the LCTF was asked to "identify ... current practice in responding to questions and issues regarding copyright in the Libraries" as well as "determine what the Libraries purview is in regard to copyright vs. other units in the University community ... and any external role [the] Libraries can/should play". The LCTF was also asked, as its charge, to "define content for a Libraries web site and possibly produce the content" (Negrucci, et al., 2009, [pp. 1-5]). This task force was the most recent of three internal committees that had examined copyright issues germane to the library and university community over the course of the past five years, as the transition from print to digital materials, the expansion of document delivery services, and the increase of local digitization initiatives prompted CSUL staff to address intellectual property issues with ever-increasing scrutiny.

This paper provides an overview of some of the major copyright issues for libraries in a digital environment. It explores how statutory and case law determine the path libraries must take to accomplish their mission. Copyright law is complex and ambiguous. It poses many challenges for librarians, but it is crucial that librarians have a basic understanding of the various provisions of the law in order to make informed decisions. However, the law is only one part of the equation. The interpretation of the law by the courts must also be constantly evaluated for potential impact to libraries.

From Gale: Within the academic library community, copyright is an area of critical importance and growing interest. As the landscape of information creation and delivery continues to change, interpretation of existing copyright guidelines, including Fair Use, has become less clear, and new laws have been passed. Scholarly communication issues, involving digital collections, institutional repositories, and consortial agreements are among the many evolving areas--along with authors' rights--that require copyright awareness and support. As a result, many campuses are establishing copyright offices, often within their libraries. Such services are invaluable to their constituents. In the following article, Donna Ferullo shares some of her experience in managing a university copyright office. She also offers insight to other institutions that may be considering providing such a service.-

From Gale: Russell is not alone in opposing the use of an ECL system. David Hansen, a clinical assistant professor and faculty research librarian at University of North Carolina School of Law, also served as the University of California-Berkeley School of Law's Digital Library Fellow for the Digital Library Copyright Project. His research has focused on how libraries and related information intermediaries can overcome copyright and other legal obstacles to provide better access to their collections online. He has written about copyright exceptions for libraries and archives under Section 108 of the Copyright Act, orphan works, mass digitization, copyright protection of metadata, and issues related to expanding copyright protection of traditional knowledge. Hansen is one of the facilitators for a project to create the Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Collections Containing Orphan Works for Libraries, Archives, and Other Memory Institutions, which was released in December 2014.

From Gale: 3D printing enables physical objects to be constructed from a virtual 3D model with the aid of a computer-aided design (CAD) program. The CAD files and printed physical product may be protected by copyright law, covering rights to reproduce and distribute copies of the work, make derivative works and publicly display or perform the work. Copyright does not cover useful articles or works in the public domain. Libraries could become entangled in copyright infringement directly or secondarily by providing the equipment that may be used to infringe on a copyright. Libraries can manage their risks by developing and implementing policies regarding 3D printer use, including using a mediated service model and being mindful of the "unsupervised copying" exception in the copyright law for libraries and archives. Patron education on 3D printing provides an opportunity to explain library policies on use and copyright issues.

From Gale database. Perhaps fittingly, when Google decided in the early 2000s to digitize the world's books, it began by partnering with large libraries to copy portions of their collections, including many that are now out of print. Those libraries generally held no copyright interest in the books they provided to Google, but rather held unique, expansive physical collections of books that made them a good fit for Google's project. Partnering with libraries (rather than, for instance, buying up books from bookstores) was clever on Google's part: It put Google in league with academic and research institutions, who are more often on the fair use side of the copyright infringement equation.