The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Public Access Policies, SPEC Kit 311, which explores the role played by ARL member libraries in supporting public access policies in their institutions.
The concept of a public access policy for research results is based on the premise that government-funded research results should be freely available without barriers to taxpayers, who provide support for the funding. With the recent enactment of the US National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Policy on Access to Research Outputs, much attention has been devoted to public access policies. Many academic and research libraries have taken the lead in developing resources and services to support authors who are required to comply with these policies.
This survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in February 2009. Respondents were asked to provide information on staffing, partnerships and resources and services developed for public access policy (PAP) compliance support, and the challenges related to providing such support. Seventy libraries from 67 institutions responded to the survey. Of the respondents, 63 were at libraries located within the US (90%) and seven were at libraries located in Canada (10%).
The majority of the responding libraries provide, or plan to provide, resources and services that help authors affiliated with their institution (and/or the author’s support staff) to comply with public access policies. Thirty-seven respondents (53%) indicated that more than one library within their system provides PAP compliance support; 11 (16%) indicated that just one library within their institution is providing this support. Four other institutions (6%) are planning to support PAP compliance. Of the libraries that do not provide such support, eight (11%) indicated that another department or unit within their institution provides compliance support. Eight others (11%) responded that their institution offers no PAP compliance support.
The SPEC Kit includes documentation from respondents in the form of PAP websites, compliance FAQs and flowcharts, handouts and slides from presentations to faculty and library staff, and sample letters to publishers.
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