Open Access Benefits Students | The Saint

"In honor of International Open Access Week, the Library and Technology Center held a conference on open access initiatives at NGCSU. Open access is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. The University Press of North Georgia (UPNG) is working in conjunction with The University System of Georgia (USG) to produce open access textbooks. A textbook is currently in the works for History 2111. 'It is no secret that the price of textbooks are skyrocketing. Having open access textbooks would save students up 80 percent a semester,' said  Dr. Marie Lasseter, a member of the USG. The book has undergone several rounds of peer review and has been in the works for about a year now.  This textbook should be available for use by Summer 2013. There are some differences between open access textbooks and e-textbooks. E-textbooks usually have limited access and are not allowed to be printed. Open access textbook are peer-edited and are available free of charge unless you decide to print it.  They are also able to be viewed without purchasing a subscription. Dr. Bonnie Robinson, Director of the University Press of North Georgia, expressed her excitement about being involved in the open textbook project. She also pointed out another benefit of having open access textbooks. 'If blind or deaf people need textbooks this could also help them out,' said Robinson. Robinson also explained more about the publication process and how an individual might go about publishing their own materials. Open-access textbooks are not the only technological advancements NGSCU has in the works. The Library and Technology Center, maintains and promotes The North Georgia Digital Commons. The Digital Commons is a central exchange for both students’ and faculty member’s work. Work included in this database comes up when searched on Google and is able to be downloaded. As of now, there are 258 papers in the Digital Commons database. To date, people have downloaded 6,441 full-text downloads from the database. 'We encourage students and faculty members to contribute to The Digital Commons. It is a great way to preserve and get their work out there,’ said Julie Higbee, Reference and Instruction Librarian. The UPNG also has its own open access journal, 'Papers and Publications’ that is a part of the Digital Commons. The idea behind these two projects is to both help students and to enhance NGCSU’s viability both regionally and internationally."