Academic Libraries and Open Access: Policies, Services and Resources for Increasing Access to Scholarship

Abstract: This presentation will focus on emerging roles for academic libraries in supporting access to scholarship through open access policies and practices. The University of Kansas recently became the first public university in the United States to adopt an "open access" policy that makes its faculty’s scholarly journal articles available for free online. We will discuss KU's experience with this and other scholarly communication initiatives, including our institutional repository, our digital publishing program, and various outreach and educational activities. We will also review some tools and resources to support open access.