Open Access publisher InTech, Croatia, has published the results of a survey appraising attitudes and awareness of the library community towards the Open Access (OA) business model in scholarly publishing. 211 librarians participated in the survey with 156 completing all questions. The majority of respondents were associated with large academic institutions covering a broad discipline base and located in Europe or North America.
The survey revealed high levels of awareness of OA amongst the library community but anticipated lower awareness amongst the research community. While 95 percent of respondents stated they were very or quite familiar with OA, 61 percent state their author and reader communities were not familiar with OA. Further, the survey found that librarians are seeking to educate their communities about OA but lack supporting resources. Nearly 97 percent stated that it is part of the librarian’s role to provide information on OA, but 42 percent state that they don’t feel they have sufficient knowledge or information to do so effectively.
Librarians feel benefits of OA are already being realised, the survey noted. Fifty percent of respondents state that OA is already achieving tangible benefits with a further 45 percent envisaging this for the future. According to the survey, currently librarians are not actively involved in managing OA funds. Their key concern with OA relate to its cost. A future of many mixed business models is anticipated by librarians. About 64 percent of respondents agree with this, while 26 percent state that OA will become the predominant model in scholarly communications.
The key change librarians see OA bringing to their role is the need to be better integrated with their research community. About 95 percent agree they need to become a more active research partner and innovator. The full results of the survey can be downloaded from www.intechopen.com/js/ckeditor/kcfinder/upload/files/Role%20of%20the%20Librarian_Survey_Findings_Jun12.pdf
