Project MUSE - Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries (review)

“Open Access to STM Information: Trends, Models, and Strategies for Libraries, edited by Anthi Katsirikou, is a compilation of short papers from the 2010 IFLA Satellite Pre-Conference in Chania, Crete, Greece, loosely on the subject of open access in academic and research libraries. Open access (OA) is an area of increasing interest for academic libraries, given rising journal subscription costs and ethical considerations about double-dipping (requiring libraries to pay for access to research that was funded by taxpayer money). The OA movement has gained publicity, and possibly momentum, after recent attempts to legislatively restrict access to taxpayer-funded research information and the subsequent high-profile boycott of Elsevier. These events have put open access back on the radar of many academic libraries, specifically as it relates to scientific information resources. This suggests that Katsirikou's collection will be of interest to academic librarians looking for new ideas in providing open access to scientific information. Open Access to STM Information is divided into subject sections titled Best Practices and Management; Open Your Society; Repository, Journals, Publications, and Publishing; Services and Technology; and Quality and Evaluation. The articles span a range of topics including case studies, position papers, and semi-quantitative research. The best of these articles provide unique perspectives on the implementation of OA principles in libraries or discuss the interface between open access and other library services like marketing and public services. The authors of many of these papers come to the material from institutions outside of the United States and Western Europe and provide a window into cultural issues related to dealing with open access content. For instance, the collection includes articles discussing social impacts of open access to cultural heritage information in Indonesia and infrastructure issues in developing OA repositories in other countries. These topics are important to our overall understanding of the implications of open access policies and planning in environments that are not typically discussed in the literature. Open Access to STM Information could have benefitted from a much heavier editorial hand. Leaving aside problems with presentation of figures and typesetting, it does not flow smoothly from paper to paper or section to section. Content is often off topic and where discussions are on topic, the treatment is often superficial, rarely delving into the labyrinth of issues that necessarily surround open access. The text also lacks suitable bookends to hold the content together by leading the reader into the collection and then drawing the collection to a close. The editor does provide a short introductory paper that attempts to contextualize the book, but it could do more to set the stage for the papers that follow. All in all, this volume approaches important open access issues as they relate to STM information but could have explored these issues with more depth and nuance.”