tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/academic-libraries-27011/articlesAcademic libraries – The Conversation2020-06-16T18:36:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1337412020-06-16T18:36:30Z2020-06-16T18:36:30ZAs libraries go digital, paper books still have a lot to offer us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339888/original/file-20200604-67347-1xxdktk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=361%2C52%2C2921%2C2276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite an increasinly online-only world, libraries can still reveal the lives of the people who once owned the books within them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Simon Weckert’s <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artist-simon-weckert-google-map-hack-1769187"><em>Google Maps Hacks</em></a>, a performance art work, a man pulls a little red wagon filled with 99 cell phones through Berlin. Drawing on the nostalgia of the <a href="http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abu/y217/m01/abu0398/s05">Radio Flyer wagons</a> and globes of my childhood, the piece seeks to disrupt <a href="https://www.google.com/maps">Google Maps</a> and to make a point about aggregated data by causing a virtual traffic jam. I remember conveying stuffed animals and favourite books around the block in my toy wagon, and travelling to my parents’ birthplaces by tracing a finger across the globe to a non-existent Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union).</p>
<p>Technology like Google Maps has reshaped our lives, from how we navigate to how we keep informed and work. Librarians like me face challenges in maintaining traditional means of accessing and delivering information to our users while embracing innovative media.</p>
<p>We appreciate the value of both analogue (print books, manuscripts, maps, globes) and digital resources like Google Maps, databases and digital archives. One format captures the history of institutions in general, and of libraries, in particular. The other allows for more equitable and experimental access. Yet, being an advocate for print can be a thankless task.</p>
<p><a href="https://sr.ithaka.org/blog/the-primacy-of-print-is-past/">Students and their professors rely increasingly on libraries’ e-resources</a>. As libraries closed during the pandemic, they were replaced with digital spaces. Yet, what is lost when entire libraries go online?</p>
<h2>Technology vs. temporal experience</h2>
<p>The value of print has been challenged before by technological innovations. At the turn of the twentieth century <a href="https://archive.org/details/libraryjournal29ameruoft/page/8/mode/2up/search/Biagi">graphophone discs were predicted to replace written novels and plays for the spoken word</a>. By mid-century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0961000605052162">microcards were to revolutionize publishing and copyright</a>; microfilm would allow for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4304071">the large-scale reproduction of originals of materials</a>. In the 21st century, <a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/08/21/less-meets-eye-print-book-use-falling-faster-research-libraries/">low-circulating print books</a> and high-demand ebooks are used as reasons to acquire ever more digital content. </p>
<p>What libraries rarely consider, though, is the extrinsic (artifactual) worth of their circulating holdings rather than their intrinsic (informational) value. Also, lost in the debate is the value of time: the time taken to browse shelves, to select a book and to read it and see traces of its use.</p>
<p>While exploring <a href="https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca">the history of the university’s library collection in our archives</a>, I consulted dozens of old accession catalogues. These catalogues allow researchers to trace the library’s growth daily and yearly. Important information can be gleaned about titles in the collection, such as their bibliographical elements and provenance history.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340185/original/file-20200605-176542-q47cj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A University of Toronto Library accession ledger shows who has had their hands on a hard copy of a book, giving a sense of the book’s history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ksenya Kiebuzinski)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>One can discover details about the library’s history such as, books gifted by Queen Victoria, Frederick I (Grand Duke of Baden), the Meteorological Office in London, Trinity College in Cambridge or, more locally, the British historian Goldwin Smith of <a href="https://ago.ca/about/the-grange">The Grange</a> (today part of the Art Gallery of Ontario). This information cannot be discovered online. It requires meticulous research of half a million handwritten entries across a span of 50 years.</p>
<h2>Social history of books</h2>
<p>Where books come from is fascinating to researchers. Personal libraries provide insights into collectors’ lives, as do individual volumes donated to our institutions. These books often include physical traces associated with the original owners, such as signatures, dedications and book plates. We may see marginalia or doodles, newspaper clippings, photographs or flowers pressed inside as bookmarks. These discoveries help us map the social history of a particular volume. Unlike pristine new digital editions, older or donated books show signs of use that go beyond a circulation statistic.</p>
<p>Our university library, for example, holds a book on 19th-century Russian drama with the following note pasted in: “Bring a bottle of bubbly, sweetie, and have some fun. (Saffy’s doing a science project at the poly-wollege and won’t be there!)”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340184/original/file-20200605-176546-1uqoxe2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A note inside a book on Russian theatre held at Robarts Library tells a story of not only the book but the life of one of its handlers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ksenya Kiebuzinski)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Other library books reveal ownership. The University of Toronto Library has <a href="https://archive.org/details/podrozgo00berl/page/n5/mode/2up">a memoir</a> of a Russian revolutionary (bound with several pamphlets by Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky) bearing the ink stamps of the Russian Branch of the Socialist Party in Quincy, Mass. These sample traces — a playful note inserted inside a book or an old ownership stamp —lead us to wonder what fun was had while Saffy was away, or curious about the history of Russians in Massachusetts and how the book got from Quincy to Toronto.</p>
<p>Such notes and stamps may be documented as notes in print or online catalogue records for rare books (not always), but rarely do traces of ownership — beyond an occasional autograph — get recorded for circulating material. While many libraries might own the same edition of a title, each copy may reveal something different about its former owners or readers. </p>
<h2>Preserving library histories</h2>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://news.virginia.edu/content/old-card-catalog-collaborative-effort-will-preserve-its-history">two graduate students of literature at the University of Virginia</a> (UVA) worked frenetically to save their library’s card catalogue, slated to be discarded during a renovation. They discovered index cards that contained notes about physical volumes not reflected in the online catalogue. The catalogue also documents changes in publishing and reading preferences over time. It reveals how UVA’s collection was rebuilt following a fire in 1895 that largely destroyed it, and what volumes were held in the university’s founding years prior to the blaze.</p>
<p>Similarly, the University of Toronto library lost most of its collection following <a href="https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/local-history-genealogy/2017/02/remembering-the-1890-fire-at-the-university-of-toronto-february-14-snapshots-in-history.html">the great fire of 1890</a>. While our card catalogue has been discarded, we have retained an original shelf list (a set of catalogue cards for books ordered by call number) for material acquired from 1890 until 1959. This will allow researchers to study seventy years of our library’s history. </p>
<p>How many stories and discoveries are yet to be related thumbing through these cards and browsing our book shelves? <a href="https://dlis.hypotheses.org/788">The Semantic Web and linked-data initiatives</a> will surface library collections across the world, but machines cannot discover what is hidden in our card catalogues or lost forever when print copies are discarded or no longer collected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ksenya Kiebuzinski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What stories will we tell about library collections in the future? As digitization takes over libraries, margin notes and scribbles are still part of the research process.Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Slavic Resources Coordinator, and Head, Petro Jacyk Resource Centre, University of Toronto Libraries, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1203232019-07-15T12:03:16Z2019-07-15T12:03:16ZUniversity of California’s showdown with the biggest academic publisher aims to change scholarly publishing for good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283903/original/file-20190712-173338-1gov2o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=311%2C0%2C4985%2C3581&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For now, it's going to be trickier for the University of California community to access some academic journals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle658/6022758297">Michelle/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month, academic publisher Elsevier <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/11/elsevier-ends-journal-access-uc-system">shuttered</a> the University of California’s online access to current journal articles. It’s the latest move in the high stakes <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-uc-elsevier-20190711-story.html">standoff</a> between Elsevier, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-uc-elsevier-20181207-story.html">world’s largest publisher of scholarly research</a>, and the University of California, whose scholars <a href="https://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/2018/chapters/chapter-9.html">produce about 10%</a> of the nation’s research publications.</p>
<p>Last February, Elsevier chose to continue providing access to journals via its <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com">ScienceDirect</a> online platform after UC’s <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-terminates-subscriptions-worlds-largest-scientific-publisher-push-open-access-publicly">subscription expired</a> and negotiations broke down. With its instant access now cut off, the UC research community will learn firsthand what it’s like to rely on the open web and other means of accessing critical research.</p>
<p>The UC-Elsevier showdown made headlines because it’s symptomatic of the way the internet has failed to deliver on the promise to make knowledge easily accessible and shareable by anyone, anywhere in the world. It’s the latest in a succession of cracks in what is widely considered to be a <a href="https://www.researchinformation.info/news/new-report-warns-%E2%80%98failing-system%E2%80%99-scholarly-publishing">failing system</a> for sharing academic research. <a href="https://leadership.ucdavis.edu/people/mackenzie-smith">As the head of the research library at UC Davis</a>, I see this development as a <a href="https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-at-uc/publisher-negotiations/uc-and-elsevier-impact/">harbinger of a tectonic shift</a> in how universities and their faculty share research, build reputations and preserve knowledge in the digital age.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Accessing a journal no longer means going to a periodicals room.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/13873472463/in/faves-52792775@N00/">Newton W. Elwell/Boston Public Library/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Moving from stacks to screens</h2>
<p>Here’s how things traditionally worked.</p>
<p>Universities have always subscribed to scientific journals so their researchers can study and build on the work that came before, and won’t needlessly duplicate research they never knew about. In the print age, university library shelves were lined with journals, available for any researcher or – in the case of public universities like the University of California – any member of the public to peruse and learn from.</p>
<p>Now, for almost all journals, and a growing number of books, libraries sign contracts to license access to digital versions. Since academic publishers moved their journals online, it has become rare for libraries to subscribe to printed journals, and researchers have adapted to the convenience of accessing journal articles on the internet.</p>
<p>Under the new business model of licensing access to journals online rather than distributing them in print, for-profit publishers often lock libraries into bundled subscriptions that wrap the majority of a publisher’s portfolio of journals – <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals">almost 3,000 in Elsevier’s case</a> – into a single, multimillion dollar package. Rather than storing back issues on shelves, libraries can lose permanent access to journals when a contract expires. And members of the public can no longer read the library’s copy of a journal because the licenses are limited to members of the university. Now the public must buy online copies of academic articles for an average of US$35 to $40 a pop. </p>
<p>The shift to digital has been good for researchers in many ways. It is far more convenient to search for articles online, and easier to access and download a copy – provided you work for an institution with a paid subscription. Modern software makes organizing and annotating them simpler, too. With all of these benefits, no one would advocate for going back to the old days of print journals. </p>
<p>Online access to journals did not improve the picture overall. Despite digital copies of articles costing nothing to duplicate and the cost of producing an article online being lower than in the past, the cost to libraries of licensing access to them has continued to experience <a href="https://www.arl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/5yr_ongoing-resource-expenditures_by_type.pdf">hyperinflation</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-journal-publishing-is-headed-for-a-day-of-reckoning-80869">No library</a> can afford to license all the journals its faculty and students want access to, and many researchers around the world are shut out completely. Compounding the problem, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">consolidation in the scholarly publishing market</a> has reduced competition significantly, causing even more price inflexibility.</p>
<h2>Excessive profits?</h2>
<p>Academic publishers certainly bear costs. They pay for professional editors and programmers, they manage the peer review process, they market their journals and so on. However, their revenues far exceed these costs and are among the highest of any companies in the world. Elsevier’s profit margin is reported to be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kittyknowles/2018/06/13/blockchain-science-iris-ai-project-aiur-elsevier-academic-journal-london-tech-week-cogx/">nearly 40%</a>, far higher than even Apple at <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/profit-margins">around 23%</a>.</p>
<p>Where social media platforms like Facebook profit from – and indeed, would not exist without – the content generated by users, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/04/the-guardian-view-on-academic-publishing-disastrous-capitalism">the parallel is true</a> for academic journals. Companies like Elsevier receive articles from university faculty and other researchers for free, summarizing research that was often publicly funded by government grants. Then other faculty and researchers serve on their editorial boards and peer-review those articles for free or a nominal fee. Finally the company publishes them in journals available only behind a paywall.</p>
<p>And there’s the rub: the paywall. The great promise of the internet was that it would make <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_wants_to_be_free">knowledge more freely and easily accessible</a>. In the world of academic research – where new discoveries are made and new knowledge is born – the hope 20 years ago was that the advent of online platforms would make research articles universally available. It would also bring down the cost of publishing scholarly journals and, consequently, begin to reduce the multimillion dollar subscription costs borne by universities and other research institutions.</p>
<p>Instead, articles are not readily available to everyone, subscription costs have continued to rise, and subscribers’ rights have eroded, including what they can do with articles they buy and their ability to provide long-term access to them.</p>
<p>What happened to sharing knowledge with the people who need it, funded or created it?</p>
<h2>A model for the digital age</h2>
<p>Maybe it’s time to just blow up the whole system and start over. But today’s scholarly system of sharing knowledge evolved over hundreds of years and contains certain qualities – peer review of accuracy, editorial judgment, long-term preservation – that still matter deeply.</p>
<p>While research products – books, journals and articles – would definitely benefit from modernization in the digital age, we at the University of California are focusing on fixing the business model first. Paywalls and online subscriptions may make sense in other parts of the media ecosystem, but it’s not a good model for academic publishing, where authors and reviewers are paid by universities and research grants (with public money) rather than by publishers.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The open access movement would get rid of paywalls and let anyone read anything for free.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/set-ornate-gates-heaven-opening-under-158678495">Inked Pixels/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Fortunately, the academy has another option for a publishing business model that can better achieve the promise of the internet: open access. In that model, authors, or their funders or institutions, pay the publisher a fee to cover the cost of publishing each article. In exchange, the articles are made freely available for everyone to read online, anywhere, anytime. Article quality is preserved by the same unpaid peer-review system. Libraries at research institutions could shift their payments from licenses and subscriptions to publication fees for their affiliated authors. The cost is theoretically the same, but everyone can read everything for free. </p>
<p>The University of California has long <a href="https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-at-uc/open-access-policy/">supported the ideals of open access</a> – allowing everyone in the world to access the knowledge created by its faculty and researchers, for the benefit of all. In fact, since open access became an option for publishing, more and more UC authors, following the <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375">global trend</a>, have independently chosen to pay their publisher a fee in order to make their article freely available to the public.</p>
<p>But those fees come on top of the <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/why-uc-split-publishing-giant-elsevier">tens of millions of dollars</a> that the university is already paying the publisher for access to the same articles. This “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-the-tax-dollar-double-dip-1459379449">double dipping</a>” by publishers was the final straw in UC’s resolve to change the system.</p>
<p>Several years ago, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Sp-B_0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I worked</a> with colleagues within the University of California and other academic research institutions to study the <a href="https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/icis/uc-pay-it-forward-project/">costs of publishing with this open access model</a>. We found that, while costs would shift and more research-grant funds may need to be applied to publishing fees, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284316481">overall it would be affordable</a> for research universities, at least in North America where libraries are relatively well funded. With these results, UC could see a way out of its dilemma. </p>
<p>When UC’s contract with Elsevier was up for renewal, we resolved to put our ideas into practice and pursue the twin goals of increasing open access to UC’s research while containing or lowering our journal-related costs – and finally achieving something of the promise of the internet. While I was not on UC’s negotiating team, I was among the group of faculty and library leaders that worked closely with them and decided to take this step.</p>
<p>Now, UC’s researchers will have to find other ways to get Elsevier journal articles than the online access they have become accustomed to. Many of those articles are already <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/daily-news/open-access-on-the-rise-study-31125">freely available</a> on the web and the rest can be borrowed from libraries or requested from authors. There are also a growing number of tools like <a href="https://unpaywall.org/">Unpaywall</a>, which searches the web for free copies of articles, to help researchers with that transition. But for busy researchers with little time to spare, convenience is king, and they’ll likely soon learn from experience why achieving 100% open access to research articles is so important.</p>
<p>UC’s goals are ambitious and their implementation will be complex. Changing a system this intricate is akin to modernizing the FAA’s air traffic control system – a million planes are in the air at any moment and altering anything can have serious consequences elsewhere. But we have to start somewhere or the whole system is at risk, and UC has placed its bet. We join an expanding <a href="https://oa2020.org/mission/#eois">global movement</a>, and we believe we’re now on the path to a better system for sharing knowledge in the 21st century.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-of-californias-break-with-the-biggest-academic-publisher-could-shake-up-scholarly-publishing-for-good-112941">an article</a> originally published on March 7, 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacKenzie Smith receives funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>The UC libraries let their Elsevier journal subscriptions lapse and now the publisher has cut their online access. It’s a painful milestone in the fight UC hopes may transform how journals get paid.MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian and Vice Provost for Digital Scholarship, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1164322019-05-30T19:50:35Z2019-05-30T19:50:35ZFriday essay: the library – humanist ideal, social glue and now, tourism hotspot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276956/original/file-20190529-192372-117nwk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">China's five-storey Tianjin Binhai Library occupies an area of 33,700 square metres with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which can contain up to 1.2 million books.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roman Pilipey</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last year two Danish librarians – Christian Lauersen and Marie Eiriksson – founded <a href="https://libraryplanet.net/">Library Planet</a>: a worldwide, crowdsourced, online library travel guide. According to them, Library Planet is meant to inspire travellers “to open the awesome book that is our world of libraries, cities and countries”.</p>
<p>The name of the online project is a deliberate nod to the Australian-made Lonely Planet. The concept is simple and powerful. Library lovers contribute library profiles and images from their travels; the founders then curate and publish the posts, with the ambition of capturing library experiences and library attractions from around the world.</p>
<p>Why make libraries <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/travel/why-you-should-become-library-tourist.html">a focus of travel</a>? There are a thousand practical and aesthetic reasons, as well as cultural ones. Libraries for the most part are safe and welcoming places. And they tell unique stories about the people who build and appreciate them. If books are the basic data of civilisation, then nations’ libraries provide windows on national souls. They are precious places in which to seek traces of the past, and reassurance about the future.</p>
<p>Library Planet now has dozens of intriguing profiles – including from Burma, Iceland, Tanzania and French Polynesia. A recent entry celebrated the Melbourne Cricket Club library at the MCG. The site has rapidly become a favourite among the bibliographical communities and subcultures of Instagram and Twitter, such as #rarebooks, #amreading and #librarylove.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277118/original/file-20190530-171433-13z4bkw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hashtag #librarylove is popular on Instagram.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Grand Tour – of libraries</h2>
<p>Library Planet may be new, but library tourism has been around a long time. In the Western Renaissance, Italian humanists visited derelict monastic libraries throughout Europe to rescue the unique manuscripts that had fallen into mouldy neglect in the late Middle Ages. In the 18th century, old libraries were a focus of the Grand Tour, and the subject of a rich travel literature.</p>
<p>Not all visits went smoothly. The author and historian Friedrich Hirsching called the directors of Germany’s public libraries “arrogant misanthropes who look upon their positions as sinecures”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276959/original/file-20190529-192383-j9tyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radcliffe Camera, a part of Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, and All Souls College to the right, in Radcliffe Square, looking north from the tower of St Mary’s Church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tejvan Pettinger/Wikipedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well into the 19th century, people were still touring libraries and they were still rescuing manuscripts. In 1843, the bibliographer Obadiah Rich wrote to the bibliophile Sir Thomas Phillipps:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More manuscripts are destroyed by ignorant people than by civil wars. I once found a bookseller at Madrid occupied in taking off the parchment covers from a large pile of old folios and throwing them into his cellar to sell by weight to the grocers: I opened one, and immediately bought the whole (120 volumes) at about two shillings per volume: you will hardly believe that among them was one of the most precious volumes in your collection; a volume of original documents relating to England in the time of Philip the second!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The era of the biblio-treasure hunt extended, Indiana-Jones style, into the 20th century. In the spring of 1910, villagers were digging for fertiliser at the site of the destroyed Monastery of the Archangel Michael, in Egypt’s Fayyum oasis, near present-day Hamuli. In an old stone cistern the villagers found 60 Coptic manuscripts. Evidently, early in the tenth century, the monks had buried the monastery’s entire library for safekeeping, shortly before the monastery closed for good.</p>
<p>Written in Sahidic (a Coptic dialect) and ranging in date from 823 to 914 AD, the manuscripts formed the oldest, largest and most important group of early Coptic texts with a single provenance.</p>
<p>Dealers and bibliographers relished the discovery. Soon the illustrious American banker and bibliophile J. P. Morgan would buy most of the manuscripts, and they are now among the treasures that visitors can see at New York’s extraordinary biblio-temple, the Morgan Library and Museum.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276953/original/file-20190529-192428-zbvg0a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Morgan Library and Museum, New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A modern pilgrimage to old libraries</h2>
<p>In 2017, my wife Fiona and I retraced the steps of some of the first library tourers. With our two young daughters (aged five and one at the time), we visited libraries in Switzerland, such as the spectacular Abbey Library of St Gall (Sankt Gallen), a former monastery, and the handsome Zentralbibliothek in Zurich. In Britain, we called on the Bodleian Library, the Wellcome Library, Lambeth Palace Library, University College Library and the irreplaceable British Library.</p>
<p>Our library touring also took us to North America, Asia, Oceania and major state and regional libraries in Australia. Visiting institutions like the Morgan, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Libraries, Harvard’s Widener and Houghton libraries, the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library, the National Library of Australia, the state libraries of Victoria and NSW and national and university libraries in China and Indonesia and New Zealand; these were life-changing experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276954/original/file-20190529-192383-m4ipnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fifth floor view of the Reading Room at the State Library of Victoria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Which libraries were our favourites? A few institutions stand out as having done everything right: beautiful, welcoming buildings; important and accessible holdings; and internal spaces designed for future scholars as well as current ones. Prominent members of this Goldilocks category include the Boston Athenaeum Library, the NYPL, the Folger Shakespeare Library and its larger Washingtonian neighbours.</p>
<p>In 2018, the four of us embarked on another library tour, this time of Japan. We sought out major libraries and everyday ones. An example from the first category is Japan’s principal public library, the National Diet Library. (The Diet is Japan’s national parliament.) The Tokyo Main Library in Chiyoda, a civic and parliamentary precinct, is the Diet Library’s principal site. It serves members of parliament and is also open to members of the public, who must register before entering.</p>
<p>The building itself features boarded concrete beams, stained glass and chunky tiles. The “high brutalist” style reminded us of a Dr Who set. The library is rich in Japanese and foreign literature, rare books and manuscripts, technical and official volumes and a multitude of other holdings. The total collection numbers in the tens of millions of items, making it one of the world’s largest and most important.</p>
<p>Also in the Chiyoda district, the building that houses the National Archives of Japan is a poignant place that contains Japan’s foundational documents, such as the decree that changed the city of Edo to Tokyo; the documents that returned to Japan its sovereignty after post-war occupation; and those that returned to Japan the ownership of Okinawa.</p>
<p>Children need special permission to enter the Tokyo Main Library – special permission that my daughters did not have. But a few suburbs north of Chiyoda, in the cultural precinct near Ueno Park, is the excellent International Library of Children’s Literature. Visitors can access this library without charge and without a library card.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277119/original/file-20190530-171409-1cxxc37.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The International Library of Children’s Literature, in Tokyo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stuart Kells</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another priority for our visit was on the hilly, green outskirts of Tokyo. A private university, Meisei University is home to the world’s second largest collection of Shakespeare First Folios. (The Folger has by far the largest collection. The New York Public Library and the British Library are among the small number of institutions that also hold multiple copies.) In addition to its cache of First Folios, Meisei also possesses other early Shakespeare editions, and much else of Shakespearean interest including artworks and artefacts.</p>
<p>Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, is a city of libraries. Many of its beautiful old buildings and neighbourhoods have been preserved. Those neighbourhoods are peppered with large and small libraries, such as the Kyoto Library of Historical Documents, the Kyoto Prefecture Library, the Kansai Library (another branch of the National Diet Library) and the glorious temple of pulp: the Manga Museum.</p>
<h2>All hail the librarian</h2>
<p>So what did we learn from all this library touring? Reports of the death of the library are certainly exaggerated. People, including young people, continue to use and appreciate libraries. People are still investing in libraries, and they are still buying and reading books. But the libraries and their custodians are engaged in hot battles on multiple fronts, including the fight against underfunding and creeping volunteerism, and the epochal clash between analogue and digital content.</p>
<p>Libraries as physical spaces have been transformed. Library architecture is a wonderful site of experimentation. (Great examples include the new Library of Alexandria, China’s amazing Tianjin Binhai Library, the University of Zurich’s ultra-modern Law Faculty library, and the stylish <a href="https://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Council/Major-Projects/Completed-works-projects/Melton-Library-and-Learning-Hub">Melton Library and Learning Hub</a> in Victoria.) Library spaces now permit an expansive variety of uses, including noisy and smelly ones. As welcoming, non-commercial and non-judgemental “third spaces”, libraries are increasingly serving a generous variety of pro-social purposes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276957/original/file-20190529-192339-v5m0ns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Tianjin Binhai Library, which is also called ‘The Eye’, opened in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">aap</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In their curation and display of books and manuscripts, comics and posters and realia, libraries are telling rich and important stories – about women’s rights, LGBTIQ rights, civil rights, counter-culture movements, climate change and the crimes of history. Libraries and librarians are contributing to social inclusion directly and in practical ways, such as by helping people write their CVs, and by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/us/new-york-library-handbags-ties.html">lending ties, handbags and briefcases</a> for job interviews. </p>
<p>In our world of gobbling capitalism and pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. The diverse roles of libraries as places of education and participation are becoming more urgent each day. Libraries are part of our knowledge system and our civic and social infrastructure; their accessibility is meant to transcend class, race, gender, sexuality and all the other classifications that elsewhere can divide us. Not everyone, though, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/quiet-please-on-the-frontline-in-an-inner-city-library-20190430-p51ikj.html">has got the memo</a>. </p>
<p>In all the battles about what libraries are for and who can use them, librarians are in the trenches, fighting the good fight. Both on-line and in-world, the latest renaissance of library appreciation has naturally seen much respect and affection directed towards librarians, who for the most part are certainly not “arrogant misanthropes”, and who generally don’t conform to the bookish, shushing stereotype.</p>
<p>But in this new world of library love, librarians also need personal space. They emphatically don’t want <a href="https://twitter.com/john_overholt/status/984028199981023232">random kisses or hugs or cakes</a>. They want you to use their libraries, relish their services, and listen to what their collections and resources say about our collective past, present and future.</p>
<h2>If libraries didn’t exist, we’d have to invent them</h2>
<p>In the curation and mobilisation of collections and resources, librarians are making the best of our digital future, without discarding our analogue past (though many rightly bemoan <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/368529/the-lost-art-of-library-card-catalogues/%5D">the loss of physical card catalogues</a> and the tangible, fractal, serendipitous experiences that came with them). </p>
<p>Rare and fragile books are being <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-first-500-books-from-the-vatican-librarys-massive-digitisation-project-are-now-online-2014-10">digitised</a> on a massive scale; scandalous and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/04/british-librarys-collection-of-obscene-writing-goes-online">hitherto hidden books</a> are being let out; and librarians are <a href="http://www.linkinglearning.com.au/digital-content-curation-more-important-than-ever/">helping to curate</a> and navigate the messy, unbounded and uncooperative soup that we call the internet.</p>
<p>Librarians are also welcoming library tourists as well as regular users and other visitors. In 2016, the New York Public Library <a href="https://lithub.com/the-12-most-popular-libraries-in-the-world/">reportedly hosted 18 million visitors</a> – many of them from other municipalities, states and countries. That same year, the National Library of China, the largest library in Asia, welcomed 5.6 million visitors. Our very own domed library, the wonderful State Library of Victoria, is also among the world’s most visited libraries. According to that institution’s latest <a href="https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Annual-Report-2018.pdf">annual report</a>, the library hosted precisely 1,937,643 visitors last year, and had more than twice as many on-line interactions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276958/original/file-20190529-192394-1e1u06e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An installation at The State Library of Victoria during White Night in 2014. The library hosted almost 2 million visitors last financial year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kerry O'Brien publicity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Glue or gum?</h2>
<p>Is there a downside to all this visiting? Are we just setting up another tension, in which libraries are victims of their own success, and locals compete with tourists for library space and time? Could our best libraries come to resemble parts of Amsterdam and Venice: pseudo-historical theme-parks; mere caricatures of civic spaces, more for tourists than for locals? Could the “social glue” of libraries be replaced by tourists’ discarded chewing gum?</p>
<p>At showcase libraries such as St Gall and the Library of Congress, tourists are in the majority, but those libraries are fully ready for them - and their gum. In our more humble municipal libraries, the library tourists certainly don’t outnumber the locals, but there is definitely tension between the demands of different types of library users. Nevertheless, I’m optimistic about the future, in part because those tensions are exactly what librarians are deft at resolving.</p>
<p>I’m optimistic, too, because of the progressive and truth-telling roles that libraries are increasingly playing. In Japan, the National Library and the National Archives tell candid and affecting stories about Japan and its fraught modern history. In the US and the UK, libraries such as the Houghton and the British Library have infinite potential to be crusty and excluding. But instead, through exhibitions of books, posters, artefacts and artwork, they are <a href="https://blogs.harvard.edu/houghton/2012/11/10/collecting-the-counterculture/">telling diverse stories</a> from marginalised voices about the fight for fairness and social inclusion. These are stories and voices that everyone should hear.</p>
<p>Who exactly are libraries for? Much of the history of libraries is concerned with matters of access. In British and European libraries, for example, people have been shut out at different times based on their gender, class, age, nationality and religion. Each of these exclusions has been, in its turn, the subject of hot debate. But all the arguments have landed us in a good place: today’s library ethos of openness and welcome.</p>
<p>The modern library is a humanist project, founded on inclusion rather than division. Today, it is possible for libraries to be islands of humanity. In the future, if we are unlucky, they might become its warehouses. But with luck, they’ll be its wellsprings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In our world of pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. Their core purpose as accessible places is vital – yet they are also now popular tourist destinations.Stuart Kells, Adjunct Professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1129412019-03-08T01:28:07Z2019-03-08T01:28:07ZUniversity of California’s break with the biggest academic publisher could shake up scholarly publishing for good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262542/original/file-20190306-100784-oqhxay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C248%2C2355%2C1691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries subscribe digitally to academic journals – and are left with nothing in the stacks when the contract expires.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/maveric2003/137231015">Eric Chan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The University of California recently made international headlines when it <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-terminates-subscriptions-worlds-largest-scientific-publisher-push-open-access-publicly">canceled its subscription</a> with scientific journal publisher <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/">Elsevier</a>. The twittersphere <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ucelsevier">lit up</a>. And Elsevier’s parent company, RELX, saw its stock <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-stocks/uk-main-index-bounces-back-on-wpp-strength-relx-tumbles-idUKKCN1QI42N">drop 7 percent</a> in response to the announcement.</p>
<p>A library canceling a subscription seems like a simple, everyday business decision, so what’s the big deal?</p>
<p>It was not just the clash-of-the-titans drama between the University of California, whose scholars <a href="https://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/2018/chapters/chapter-9.html">produce nearly 10 percent</a> of the nation’s research publications, and Elsevier, the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-uc-elsevier-20181207-story.html">world’s largest publisher</a> of academic research. </p>
<p>The story made headlines because it’s symptomatic of the way in which the internet has failed to deliver on the promise to make knowledge easily accessible and shareable by anyone, anywhere in the world. The UC-Elsevier showdown was the latest in a succession of cracks in what is widely considered to be a <a href="https://www.researchinformation.info/news/new-report-warns-%E2%80%98failing-system%E2%80%99-scholarly-publishing">failing system</a> for sharing academic research. <a href="https://leadership.ucdavis.edu/people/mackenzie-smith">As the head of the research library at UC Davis</a>, I see this development as a harbinger of a tectonic shift in how universities and their faculty share research, build reputations and preserve knowledge in the digital age.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262544/original/file-20190306-100796-1cwusvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accessing a journal no longer means going to a periodicals room.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/13873472463/in/faves-52792775@N00/">Newton W. Elwell/Boston Public Library/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moving from stacks to screens</h2>
<p>Here’s how things traditionally worked.</p>
<p>Universities have always subscribed to scientific journals so their researchers can study and build on the work that came before, and won’t needlessly duplicate research they never knew about. In the print age, university library shelves were lined with journals, available for any researcher or – in the case of public universities like the University of California – any member of the public to peruse and learn from.</p>
<p>Now, for almost all journals, and a growing number of books, libraries sign contracts to license access to digital versions. Since academic publishers moved their journals online, it has become rare for libraries to subscribe to printed journals, and researchers have adapted to the convenience of accessing journal articles on the internet.</p>
<p>Under the new business model of licensing access to journals online rather than distributing them in print, for-profit publishers often lock libraries into bundled subscriptions that wrap the majority of a publisher’s portfolio of journals – <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals">almost 3,000 in Elsevier’s case</a> – into a single, multi-million dollar package. Rather than storing back issues on shelves, libraries can lose permanent access to journals when a contract expires. And members of the public can no longer read the library’s copy of a journal because the licenses are limited to members of the university. Now the public must buy online copies of academic articles for an average of US$35 to $40 a pop. </p>
<p>The shift to digital has been good for researchers in many ways. It is far more convenient to search for articles online, and easier to access and download a copy – provided you work for an institution with a paid subscription. Modern software makes organizing and annotating them simpler, too. With all of these benefits, no one would advocate for going back to the old days of print journals. </p>
<p>But this online system did not improve the picture overall. Despite digital copies of articles costing nothing to duplicate and the cost of producing an article online being lower than in the past, the cost to libraries of licensing access to them has continued to experience <a href="https://www.arl.org/storage/documents/5yr_ongoing-resource-expenditures_by_type.pdf">hyperinflation</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-journal-publishing-is-headed-for-a-day-of-reckoning-80869">No library</a> can afford to license all of the journals that its faculty and students want access to, and many researchers around the world are shut out completely. Compounding the problem, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127502">consolidation in the scholarly publishing market</a> has reduced competition significantly, causing even more price inflexibility.</p>
<h2>Excessive profits?</h2>
<p>Academic publishers certainly bear costs. They pay for professional editors and programmers, they manage the peer review process, they market their journals and so on. However, their revenues far exceed these costs and are among the highest of any companies in the world. Elsevier’s profit margin is reported to be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kittyknowles/2018/06/13/blockchain-science-iris-ai-project-aiur-elsevier-academic-journal-london-tech-week-cogx/">nearly 40 percent</a> far higher than even Apple at <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AAPL/apple/profit-margins">around 23 percent</a>.</p>
<p>Where social media platforms like Facebook profit from – and indeed, would not exist without – the content generated by users, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/04/the-guardian-view-on-academic-publishing-disastrous-capitalism">the parallel is true</a> for academic journals. Companies like Elsevier receive articles from university faculty and other researchers for free, summarizing research that was often publicly funded by government grants. Then other faculty and researchers serve on their editorial boards and peer-review those articles for free or a nominal fee. Finally the company publishes them in journals available only behind a paywall.</p>
<p>And there’s the rub: the paywall. The great promise of the internet was that it would make <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_wants_to_be_free">knowledge more freely and easily accessible</a>. In the world of academic research – where new discoveries are made and new knowledge is born – the hope 20 years ago was that the advent of online platforms would make research articles universally available. It would also bring down the cost of publishing scholarly journals and, consequently, begin to reduce the multi-million dollar subscription costs borne by universities and other research institutions.</p>
<p>Instead, articles are not readily available to everyone, subscription costs have continued to rise, and subscribers’ rights have eroded, including what they can do with articles they buy and their ability to provide long-term access to them.</p>
<p>What happened to sharing knowledge with the people who need it, funded or created it?</p>
<h2>A model for the digital age</h2>
<p>Maybe it’s time to just blow up the whole system and start over. But the system of sharing knowledge that scholars have today evolved over hundreds of years and contains certain qualities – peer review of accuracy, editorial judgment, long-term preservation – that still matter deeply.</p>
<p>While research products – books, journals and articles – would definitely benefit from modernization in the digital age, we at the University of California are focusing on fixing the business model first. Paywalls and online subscriptions may make sense in other parts of the media ecosystem, but it’s not a good model for academic publishing, where authors and reviewers are paid by universities and research grants (with public money) rather than by publishers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262775/original/file-20190307-82688-17ky3w8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The open access movement would get rid of paywalls and let anyone read anything for free.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/set-ornate-gates-heaven-opening-under-158678495">Inked Pixels/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fortunately, the academy has another option for a publishing business model that can better achieve the promise of the internet: open access. In that model, authors, or their funders or institutions, pay the publisher a fee to cover the cost of publishing each article. In exchange, the articles are made freely available for everyone to read online, anywhere, anytime. Article quality is preserved by the same unpaid peer-review system. Libraries at research institutions could shift their payments from licenses and subscriptions to publication fees for their affiliated authors. The cost is theoretically the same, but everyone can read everything for free. </p>
<p>The University of California has long <a href="https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/open-access-at-uc/open-access-policy/">supported the ideals of open access</a> – allowing everyone in the world to access the knowledge created by its faculty and researchers, for the benefit of all. In fact, since open access became an option for publishing, more and more UC authors, following the <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375">global trend</a>, have independently chosen to pay their publisher a fee in order to make their article freely available to the public.</p>
<p>But those fees come on top of the <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/why-uc-split-publishing-giant-elsevier">tens of millions of dollars</a> that the university is already paying the publisher for access to the same articles. This “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-the-tax-dollar-double-dip-1459379449">double dipping</a>” by publishers was the final straw in UC’s resolve to change the system.</p>
<p>Several years ago, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Sp-B_0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I worked</a> with colleagues within the University of California and other academic research institutions to study the <a href="https://www.library.ucdavis.edu/icis/uc-pay-it-forward-project/">costs of publishing with this open access model</a>. We found that, while costs would shift and more research-grant funds may need to be applied to publishing fees, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284316481">overall it would be affordable</a> for research universities, at least in North America where libraries are relatively well funded. With these results, UC could see a way out of its dilemma. </p>
<p>When UC’s contract with Elsevier was up for renewal, we resolved to put our ideas into practice and pursue the twin goals of increasing open access to UC’s research while containing or lowering our journal-related costs – and finally achieving something of the promise of the internet. While I was not on UC’s negotiating team, I was among the group of faculty and library leaders that worked closely with them and decided to take this step.</p>
<p>Our goals are ambitious and their implementation will be complex. Changing a system this intricate is akin to modernizing the FAA’s air traffic control system – a million planes are in the air at any moment and changing anything can have serious consequences elsewhere. But we have to start somewhere or the whole system is at risk, and UC has placed its bet. We join a <a href="https://oa2020.org/mission/#eois">global movement</a> that began in Europe and is expanding around the world, and we believe we’re now on the path to a better system for sharing knowledge in the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MacKenzie Smith receives funding from Mellon Foundation, IMLS, NSF. </span></em></p>Digital publishing hasn’t resulted in the free and open access to information many envisioned. Universities are increasingly fed up with a system they see as charging them for their own scholars’ labor.MacKenzie Smith, University Librarian and Vice Provost for Digital Scholarship, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1070982018-11-25T09:16:51Z2018-11-25T09:16:51ZWhy ‘fair use’ is so important for South African copyright law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246411/original/file-20181120-161612-yi2pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa seeks to amend its outdated copyright legislation.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Fair use” is a doctrine <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2333863">adopted by some countries</a> that permits the use of copyright material like books, journals, music and art work – without requiring permission from the copyright holder. It provides a balance between the just demands of rights-holders and the need for people to use copyright material for education, research, in libraries and archives.</p>
<p>The reuse of copyright material is done within a framework of four criteria. These determine whether the proposed use is fair or not. If the user complies with these, they may go ahead and use the copyright work without permission from the rights-holder.</p>
<p>In the US, which entrenched the doctrine in its law in 1976, fair use has served citizens well. It has enabled the country’s creative industries <a href="https://www.ccianet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Fair-Use-in-the-U.S.-Economy-2017.pdf">to grow exponentially</a> – so much so that the US <a href="https://www.trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Top%20Markets%20Media%20and%20Entertinment%202017.pdf">boasts</a> the largest and most successful filmed entertainment, music, book publishing, and video games in the world. </p>
<p>Despite these gains, “fair use” has <a href="http://www.samro.org.za/news/articles/copyright-alliance-petitions-parliament-over-proposed-new-law">its naysayers</a>. Now the debate has come to South Africa, as the country seeks to amend its outdated copyright legislation.</p>
<p>The country’s Copyright Amendment Bill has been redrafted several times since 2015. It has been discussed and debated over the past 15 months by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry. In its latest draft, the Bill outlines several fair use provisions and exceptions for the educational, research and library sectors. </p>
<p>These have been largely <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-08-04-fears-of-fair-use-law-being-used-to-rip-off-rights-holders-are-unfounded/">welcomed</a> in the higher education space and formally supported by many international and local organisations, institutions, teacher unions, NGOs, various creators, and libraries and archives. That’s because fair use provisions will facilitate better access to information and resource-sharing, along with other benefits like allowing accessible formats for persons with disabilities.</p>
<p>There’s also been fierce opposition to these provisions. Groups that object to the proposed changes would prefer to maintain what’s known as “<a href="https://libguides.wits.ac.za/c.php?g=145347&p=953446">fair dealing</a>” as the status quo. This is a legal doctrine that allows for an express, finite (closed) list of uses of copyright material without permission from the copyright holder. It’s far more restrictive in application than “fair use”.</p>
<p>The problem is that the status quo is outdated. Entrenching fair use in South African copyright law is a way to ensure the country steps firmly into the present and, ultimately, is able to move into the future. Fair use is “future-proof”. The US, for instance, has not needed to change its fair use provisions since 1976. That’s because the provisions already cater for new technologies, artificial intelligence and new developments that arise out of the fast-advancing fourth industrial revolution.</p>
<p>South Africa’s copyright law must not continue to ignore fair use.</p>
<h2>Not a piracy tool</h2>
<p>Several arguments have been levelled against fair use in South Africa and other parts of the world.</p>
<p>First, it’s been suggested that fair use offers carte blanche for infringing copyright owners’ rights. Some argue that, for instance, a university could buy one copy of a prescribed book and make copies for thousands of students, without compensating the author. But that’s not fair use; that’s copyright infringement, and it’s expressly forbidden according to the framework that governs fair use.</p>
<p>This framework consists of four criteria, which explore the following issues:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the purpose and character of use</p></li>
<li><p>the nature of the copyrighted work</p></li>
<li><p>the amount and sustainability of the portion used; and,</p></li>
<li><p>the effect upon the rights-holder’s potential market.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This framework allows copyright users to assess whether their reproduction, reuse or remixing of copyright works is lawful or not. </p>
<p>Some have also argued that fair use is in conflict with the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/">Berne Convention</a>, an international agreement governing copyright that’s been in use for more than a century. That’s not the case. If it was, the US and other countries that have fair use in their copyright laws would have faced challenges by now under the Dispute Settlement Mechanism at the World Intellectual Property Organisation or other international forums that deal with copyright matters.</p>
<p>Fair use is a positive tool for users and producers of information, as it facilitates access and reuse of copyright works for various purposes, including creativity and innovation, without infringing copyright law. </p>
<p>As US Judge Pierre N. Leval <a href="http://www.pijip.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/103HarvLRev.pdf">puts it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fair use is not a grudgingly tolerated exception to the copyright owner’s rights of private property, but a fundamental policy of the copyright law. The stimulation of creative thought and authorship for the benefit of society depends assuredly on the protection of the author’s monopoly. But it depends equally on the recognition that the monopoly must have limits.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A “foreign” idea?</h2>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2225-71602016000100008">argument</a> that’s been levelled against fair use specifically in South Africa is that the country will be importing a “foreign” copyright regime into its national legislation.</p>
<p>South African laws have been based on or influenced by foreign legislation for centuries. Why would adopting this piece of law – which works in the US and a number of other countries – be any different? In fact, the current “fair dealing” provisions are inherited from British colonial legislation, which makes them equally “foreign”.</p>
<p>South Africa is part of the global community. It cannot ignore legislative developments in other countries, particularly those that will bring them in line with global best practice.</p>
<h2>What is the next step?</h2>
<p>The latest draft of the Bill was approved by the parliamentary committee in November 2018. Next, it is due to go before the National Assembly, and possibly the National Council for Provinces, for further debate.</p>
<p>Hopefully this ongoing debate will encourage better, stronger fair use conditions rather than leaving South Africa far behind, and will ensure that the country has a fair and progressive Copyright Amendment Act in the near future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denise Rosemary Nicholson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa’s copyright law must not continue ignoring the principles of fair use.Denise Rosemary Nicholson, Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/906382018-01-25T19:12:33Z2018-01-25T19:12:33ZEssays On Air: Why libraries can and must change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203204/original/file-20180124-72597-ot1ryv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcella Cheng/NY-CC-BD</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the age of the globalisation of everything – and the privatisation of everything else - libraries can and must change. In fact, it’s already underway, as new technologies take books and libraries to places that are, as yet, unimaginable. </p>
<p>That’s what we’re unpacking today on Essays On Air, where we bring you fascinating long form essays in audio form.</p>
<p>Today, Camilla Nelson, Associate Professor of Writing at the University of Notre Dame, reads her essay, titled <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-libraries-can-and-must-change-83496">Why libraries can and must change</a>.</p>
<p>Nelson takes us from the ancient Library of Alexandria to the New York Public Library and explores the problems that arise when books are excluded, destroyed, censored and forgotten. And, indeed, when libraries are decimated.</p>
<p>Join us as we read to you here at Essays On Air, a podcast from The Conversation.</p>
<p>Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/essays-on-air/id1333743838?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Snow by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/Cinematic/Snow">David Szesztay</a></p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/44076/">Big chain</a> by daveincamas</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/jcgd2/sounds/131259/">Traffic noise</a> in the street by jcgd2</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Kyodon/sounds/153423/">Automatic door</a> by Kyodon</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/jakobthiesen/sounds/188420/">Kids Birthday Party Crowd</a> by jakobthiesen</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/raremess/sounds/222558/">Cardboard burning</a> by Rare Mess Recordings</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Quistard/sounds/231939/">Plunger-pop </a>by Quistard</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/mariiao2/sounds/232803/">environment 1st floor</a> by mariiao2</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/Duophonic/sounds/248272/">Moderate waves on the edge of a river</a> by Duophonic</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/deleted_user_3667256/sounds/320328/">breaking objects</a> by deleted_user_3667256</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/339673/">Vacuum cleaner</a>, by InspectorJ</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/nathanaellentz/sounds/342156/">Morning docks</a> by nathanaellentz</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/ScreamStudio/sounds/392616/">Tearing paper</a> by ScreamStudio</p>
<p><a href="https://freesound.org/people/AryaNotStark/sounds/407632/">Shhh Sounds by AryaNotStark</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwF_LnTqLUM">Best Bernard Black Moments, Black Books by Channel 4</a></p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/MAT64/The_Midnight_Eclipse_vol1/11_Ye_Olde_Green_Inn">Ye Olde Green Inn by MAT64</a></p>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Freeharmonic_Orchestra/Space_Robots_the_Future/11_-_RoboHobo">Robo Hobo by The Freeharmonic Orchestra</a></p>
<p><em>This episode was edited by Jenni Henderson. Illustration by Marcella Cheng.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90638/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It's about a radical transformation in reading practices, as explained in this episode of Essays On Air.Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808692017-11-06T01:22:00Z2017-11-06T01:22:00ZAcademic journal publishing is headed for a day of reckoning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193246/original/file-20171103-1041-1mv0m1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Locking articles away behind a paywall stifles access.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brixton/318141026">Elizabeth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine a researcher working under deadline on a funding proposal for a new project. This is the day she’s dedicated to literature review – pulling examples from existing research in published journals to provide evidence for her great idea. Creating an up-to-date picture of where things stand in this narrow corner of her field involves 30 references, but she has access to only 27 of those via her library’s journal subscriptions. Now what?</p>
<p>There isn’t time to contact the three primary authors to get copies directly from them. Interlibrary loan will take too long. She could try other sites that host academic papers – such as ResearchGate and Sci-Hub – but access to particular articles isn’t assured and publishers are cracking down on what they call copyright violations.</p>
<p>This fictitious example illustrates the quandary in which many researchers find themselves today. Access to journals is crucial for how they do their work. But few research libraries can afford all the journal subscriptions needed by all of their faculty for all occasions. As the dean of libraries at a state school, I contend that the economic model for academic journal publications is broken. As scholars are handicapped by limited access to the corpus of research in their fields, scientific progress is restricted and slows, and society ultimately loses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193247/original/file-20171103-1032-tt9l0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A literature review depends on access to online or hard copies of published research articles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolflawlibrary/3923735590">The Wolf Law Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Path to publication</h2>
<p>Before there’s anything to be published in a journal, a researcher must conduct the study or experiment. The first step is the proposal to secure necessary funding. As in our vignette above, this requires establishing the state of the art from a literature review of professional publications in the discipline – accessed mostly through subscription contracts entered into by their institution’s library.</p>
<p>Volunteer committees of researchers assembled by federal funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation or National Institute of Health, review these proposals. Grants are awarded to the ones considered most promising. Then the funded researchers get down to work.</p>
<p>After conducting the research, sometimes over multiple years, the next step for a scholar is to prepare and submit a manuscript to a journal. This publication of new findings becomes the “coin of the realm” in academia. Publishing in top-tier journals provides broad exposure for the ideas, and paves the way to tenure and promotion.</p>
<p>Journal editors, many of whom are themselves researchers and uncompensated for these duties, manage the review and acceptance process. Editors distribute manuscripts to anonymous reviewers who are experts, typically researchers in the field, who assess whether the work is solid and advances the state of knowledge. The reviewers can recommend the journal accept the manuscript as is (almost never happens), accept with mandatory or suggested revisions, or reject for publication.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193235/original/file-20171103-1046-18lg81i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of an article hidden behind an online paywall, accessible only to subscribers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/5471810850">Duncan Hull</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now it’s up to the original researcher to make changes and submit the final article for publication. Often authors must remunerate the publisher for processing charges, typically in the range of US$2,000 to $5,000 per article. For this fee, the journals provide copy editing and other publishing functions, and produce galley proofs for the authors to review and vet.</p>
<p>Finally, the article is published, where it’s most likely hidden behind a “paywall” on a site that can be accessed only by paying subscribers, typically academic institutions’ libraries.</p>
<p>Note that most of the heavy lifting is accomplished by the researchers themselves. </p>
<h2>Ballooning costs make it impossible to keep up</h2>
<p>So, in our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content.</p>
<p>For this privilege, thousands of institutions pay billions of dollars per year to publishers. Members of the <a href="http://www.arl.org/">Association of Research Libraries</a> alone report spending about $1 billion per year <a href="http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/statistics-assessment/statistical-trends">purchasing subscriptions to journals</a>. </p>
<p>According to an internal Association of Research Libraries survey conducted in 2016, the vast majority of their member libraries can’t keep up with these costs. For the most part, their budgets aren’t keeping up with publisher cost increases, so they need to make hard decisions about which journal subscriptions to let lapse, which new and emerging areas to ignore, and where they can cut their nonjournal collections to find additional dollars for journal cost increases.</p>
<p>And the price tags are rising, with <a href="http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/statistics-assessment/statistical-trends">journal inflation costs outpacing the consumer price index</a> by a factor of four to five.</p>
<p><iframe id="qpFCw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qpFCw/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The 123 ARL institutions are among the best, most well-funded institutions in North America. Things may be far worse for other institutions and their libraries. And the situation may be most extreme for institutions and researchers in developing countries, who can afford few if any paywall subscriptions to journals – at a time when an increasing amount of research is conducted collaboratively across borders and is relevant to their countries.</p>
<p>Academia’s original impetus for publishing through the private sector was to ensure a sufficient economic base to perform the copy editing and publication. Now, some of the larger publishers report <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsevier">billions of dollars of profit annually</a>, exceeding 30 percent of revenue – never the intent.</p>
<p>For their part, the journals say they’re providing <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6285/497.full">valuable services that have real costs</a> – things such as expertly curating, editing and proofreading the content. But critics claim publishers are more interested in profit than disseminating scholarship. It doesn’t seem they’re passing on any cost savings that have presumably resulted from tech advances – things such as accepting electronic copies of papers that make it easier to produce final versions, or doing away with printing expensive hard copies and exclusively publishing online. </p>
<p>This upside-down publishing picture has persisted since the 1980s. Due to institutions’ reliance upon library materials, the inability to keep up with such extreme cost increases is damaging to higher education instruction and research. Without consistent access to the cutting-edge knowledge that’s embodied in the universe of journal publications, faculty, students and researchers can’t keep up with new research.</p>
<h2>Short-circuiting the system</h2>
<p>Maybe it’s not a surprise that individuals find ways to circumvent the publishers’ paywalls to access content, despite the scrupulous adherence to copyright law <a href="http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/copyright-ip">espoused by libraries and librarians</a>.</p>
<p>Access via ResearchGate – a networking site where researchers can share papers – doesn’t provide journal articles’ full text. And it’s dealing with the threat of <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/publishers-threaten-to-remove-millions-of-papers-from-researchgate-1.22793">lawsuits from publishers</a> who say the site violates their copyrights.</p>
<p>Sci-Hub provides access to tens of millions of papers, letting people sneak around paywalls. Again, the publishers claim copyright violation. The site, hosted in Russia, has faced injunctions and lawsuits, and even been ordered by a New York court to pay publisher Elsevier <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/us-court-grants-elsevier-millions-in-damages-from-sci-hub-1.22196">$15 million in damages</a>.</p>
<p>But efforts like these to bypass paywalls are only symptoms of the problem. Unsustainability embedded in the current economic model for journal publications is the source. If we are to maintain healthy education and research environments, changes are incipient and imperative. </p>
<p>Possible solutions include taking collective action with publishers to obtain lower pricing immediately, with reasonable annual inflation, and better bundling of titles so libraries get the ones we want rather than the ones publishers add. Open access journals that don’t employ paywalls could help. Another partial solution could be capturing many more preprint versions of journal articles in a formal, citable fashion that can be referenced well. The state of academic publishing is in such crisis that a variety of strategies may need to be adopted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Burns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content. With the costs rising and access restricted, something’s got to give.Patrick Burns, Dean of Libraries and Vice President for Information Technology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/708282017-01-05T01:40:03Z2017-01-05T01:40:03ZThe challenge facing libraries in an era of fake news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151784/original/image-20170104-18641-7jvsy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can students think critically about information in today's age?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubclibrary/3027724237/in/photolist-5BxSW2-9SDfbm-a2gD6J-7utwti-9KeTKL-9sCHMM-boQts3-DKZasF-eg72Ac-DUePJi-o4K58D-DRVcEd-cKqgvS-4au42c-f8ES9q-drFH5g-54NAiU-vssxe-7km7dz-ei9WPX-7km7kR-9KeTHq-69B5XV-4rKLhT-3nhMyr-65hDDs-7km7sD-9KeTMA-7kq1dW-xYyhHA-7km7fX-9KeTyb-eg74Yx-6M551E-6Df4tn-om85Ef-7km7Zi-5UmnyJ-abChhc-5AHaV8-6M58zs-7km7Ea-9SAogg-4kM9om-7xysnv-7km7qv-9U4aZR-853eYn-7km7nZ-bepB2k">UBC Library Communications/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine, for a moment, the technology of 2017 had existed on Jan. 11, 1964 – the day Luther Terry, surgeon general of the United States, released <a href="https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/NNBBMQ.pdf">“Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States</a>.” </p>
<p>What would be some likely scenarios?</p>
<p>The social media noise machine explodes; conservative websites immediately paint the report as a nanny-government attack on personal freedom and masculinity; the report’s findings are hit with a flood of satirical memes, outraged Facebook posts, attack videos and click-bait fake news stories; Big Tobacco’s publicity machine begins pumping out disinformation via both popular social media and pseudoscientific <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v534/n7607/full/534326a.html">predatory journals</a> willing to print anything for a price; Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater characterizes “Smoking and Health” as a “communist-inspired hoax.” </p>
<p>Eventually, the Johnson administration distances itself from the surgeon general’s controversial report.</p>
<p>Of course none of the above actually occurred. While Big Tobacco spent decades doing all that it could <a href="https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/about/history/">to muddy the waters</a> on the health impacts of smoking, in the end scientific fact triumphed over corporate fiction. </p>
<p>Today, thanks to responsible science and the public policies it inspired, only <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/">15 percent of adults in the United States smoke</a>, down from <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/tables/trends/cig_smoking/">42.4 percent in 1965</a>. </p>
<p>One might ask: Would it have been possible to achieve this remarkable public health victory had today’s social media environment of fake news and information echo chambers existed in 1964?</p>
<p>Maybe not. As a long-time academic librarian, I have spent a good part of my career teaching college students to think critically about information. And the fact is that I watch many of them <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/At-Sea-in-a-Deluge-of-Data/147477/">struggle with the challenges</a> of discovering, internalizing, evaluating and applying credible information. For me, the recent spate of stories about large segments of the population falling for fake news stories was no surprise. </p>
<p>Making sense of information is hard, maybe increasingly so in today’s world. So what role have academic libraries played in helping people make sense of world bursting at the seams with information? </p>
<h2>History of information literacy</h2>
<p>Since the 19th century, academic librarians have been actively engaged in teaching students how to negotiate increasingly complex information environments.</p>
<p>Evidence exists of library instruction <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1300/J120v24n51_06?needAccess=true">dating back to the 1820s</a> at Harvard University. Courses on using libraries emerged at a number of colleges and universities after the Civil War. Until well into the 20th century, however, academic librarians largely gave library building tours, and their instruction was aimed at mastery of the local card catalog. </p>
<p>Beginning in the 1960s, academic librarians experienced a broadening of their role in instruction. This broadening was inspired by a number of factors: increases in the sheer size of academic library collections; the emergence of such technologies as microfilm, photocopiers and even classroom projection; and such educational trends as the introduction of new majors and emphasis on self-directed learning. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151783/original/image-20170104-29222-1owie8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elementary school librarian in the 1980s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/10557450@N04/6137779949/in/photolist-amnJ9e-rrYwZ-6a6KDC-59ETo4-7WVtQd-7WVGZs-59K6n5-7WVwyC-7WSbfB-7WVpTU-59ETMT-7WVx9C-59EUAv-fgT6M-6NQpXX-9VMjyw-4ffJXB-FK8jV-3wC3S-7WSeze-59ES9x-7WSe1F-7WVyNW-7WVDQG-9M74Yg-7WVqYW-4bWhEj-59K7vA-7ymzhM-48S29c-7WVvv3-7WSnUi-ayq6ZQ-7WSop2-7WVESq-rg31q-7WVFs7-7WSswV-59K4Zs-HU6Vv-7WSjva-7WSoUK-4LNixX-a3jKwV-p8w8Y7-7WVuUj-dckosA-7WSgfg-7WVAG3-7WSk3g">theunquietlibrarian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new instructional role of academic librarians was notably reflected in the coining of the phrase <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED100391.pdf">“information literacy” in 1974 by Paul G. Zurkowski,</a> then president of the Information Industry Association. </p>
<p>Rather than being limited to locating items in a given library, information literacy recognized that students needed to be equipped with skills required to identify, organize and cite information. More than that, it focused on the ability to critically evaluate the credibility and appropriateness of information sources. </p>
<h2>Changes in a complex world</h2>
<p>In today’s digital world, information literacy is a far more complex subject than it was when the phrase was coined. Back then, the universe of credible academic information was analog and (for better or worse) handpicked by librarians and faculty. </p>
<p>Students’ information hunting grounds was effectively limited to the campus library, and information literacy amounted to mastering a handful of relatively straightforward skills, such as using periodical indexes and library catalogs, understanding the difference between primary and secondary sources of information, and distinguishing between popular and scholarly books and journals. </p>
<p>Today, the situation is far more nuanced. And not just because of the hyperpartisan noise of social media. </p>
<p>Thirty or 40 years ago, a student writing a research paper on the topic of acid rain might have needed to decide whether an article from a scientific journal like Nature was a more appropriate source than an article from a popular magazine like Time. </p>
<p>Today’s students, however, must know how to distinguish between articles published by genuine scholarly journals and those churned out by look-alike predatory and <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/27383/title/Elsevier-published-6-fake-journals/">fake journals</a> that falsely claim to be scholarly and peer-reviewed.</p>
<p>This is a far trickier proposition. </p>
<p>Further complicating the situation is the relativism of the postmodern philosophy underpinning much of <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/truth/#SH5a">postmodern scholarly thinking</a>. Postmodernism rejects the notion that concepts such as truth and beauty exist as absolutes that can be revealed through the work of creative “authorities” (authors, painters, composers, philosophers, etc.). </p>
<p>While postmodernism has had positive effects, it has simultaneously undermined the concept of authority. If, as postmodernist philosophy contends, truth is constructed rather than given, what gives anyone the right to say one source of information is credible and another is not? </p>
<p>Further complicating the situation are serious questions surrounding the legitimacy of mainstream scholarly communication. In addition to predatory and fake journals, recent scandals include researchers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/">faking results</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/08/fraudulent-peer-review-strikes-another-academic-publisher-32-articles-questioned/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.cbea77b40176">fraudulent peer review</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/real-crisis-in-psychology-isnt-that-studies-dont-replicate-but-that-we-usually-dont-even-try-47249">barriers to conducting and publishing replication studies</a> that seek to either verify or disprove earlier studies.</p>
<h2>So, what’s the future?</h2>
<p>In such an environment, how is a librarian or faculty member supposed to respond to a bright student who sincerely asks, “How can you say that a blog post attacking GMO food is less credible than some journal article supporting the safety of GMO food? What if the journal article’s research results were faked? Have the results been replicated? At the end of the day, aren’t facts a matter of context?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151785/original/image-20170104-18668-aialm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How can students be trained to be information-literate?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimiw/1878552888/in/photolist-3S15jU-8pz2vm-sk3FMk-8nBxtW-8nB35L-r4HjN7-eKPnZm-4wrLk5-cFhxM-jZhuMr-8nB8Qo-jkrUVL-7euof-nU34U-NUcN-7Xhhmq-p9CeSP-i824iY-o8u7ja-p78SnP-62WmT1-p9SpGY-8y1iLc-bkpd7C-2pqSst-8Nkmi9-8nBTvu-mbgSB-bmqGXo-bjqUYD-c6Bi1o-8nxY9M-9fYADL-F5KyvG-ngf9hQ-8nyzwk-dRTft-btLnvB-cXHNnh-8nyhXR-7xWwZQ-oZNWG7-8nBGjd-8JJF3-5uSU5Q-5uNy96-u43iC-6Wcg4Q-omYCRD-2u92AH">Mary Woodard</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recognition of a <a href="http://crln.acrl.org/content/77/8/382.full">dynamic and often unpredictable information landscape</a> and a rapidly changing higher education environment in which students are often creators of new knowledge rather than just consumers of information, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) launched its <a href="http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework">Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education</a>, the first revision to the ACRL’s standards for information literacy in over 15 years. </p>
<p>The framework recognizes that information literacy is too nuanced to be conceived of as a treasure hunt in which information resources neatly divide into binary categories of “good” and “bad.” </p>
<p>Notably, the first of the framework’s six subsections is titled “Authority Is Constructed and Contextual” and calls for librarians to approach the notions of authority and credibility as dependent on the context in which the information is used rather than as absolutes.</p>
<p>This new approach asks students to put in the time and effort required to determine the credibility and appropriateness of each information source for the use to which they intend to put it. </p>
<p>For students this is far more challenging than either a) simply accepting authority without question or b) rejecting all authority as an anachronism in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/16/post-truth-named-2016-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries/?utm_term=.753621fbfcdc">post-truth</a> world. Formally adopted in June 2016, the framework represents a way forward for information literacy. </p>
<p>While I approve of the direction taken by the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, I do not see it as the ultimate solution to the information literacy challenge. Real progress in information literacy will require librarians, faculty and administrators working together. </p>
<p>Indeed, it will require higher education, as well as secondary and primary education, to make information literacy a priority across the curriculum. Without such concerted effort, a likely outcome could be a future of election results and public policies based on whatever information – credible or not – bubbles to the top of the social media noise machine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald A. Barclay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the 19th century academic librarians have helped students navigate the complex world of information. In today’s unpredictable information environment, how might they rethink their role?Donald A. Barclay, Deputy University Librarian, University of California, MercedLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635752016-10-24T01:59:36Z2016-10-24T01:59:36ZCould subscriptions for academic journals go the way of pay phones?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142725/original/image-20161021-1773-1om1q8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should the public pay to read research?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbsk/4980421657/in/photolist-8A6XQV-8Aa4Jq-8Aa4Lm-bLiMFx-aZWiM8-8A6XSi-8A6Xya-abadYb-8Aa4Pm-8Aa4MN-kkpW-4pp8AA-8Aa4Ub-dsPkpH-4F7Q57-8A6XGT-2od2G-5deFEe-ggwxvR-8Aa4Zd-87FG1B-73AV9v-8A6XKc-iQiXqW-7MQWdB-8Aa4Y3-5aZddG-8Aa4RJ-4GH1DF-4pp8AN-4GH25c-4eUvA4-4GH34B-4TZ58D-4GH5z8-4GMaGS-5PAeF7-4GGZSF-4GH5fp-8A6XEg-4GH3tP-3pXRU-dydt9a-4GH2iM-9bZ5AC-5deFEk-8Aa4WU-4ydeyf-4GH2vP-dJ51SX">Barry Silver</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cost of academic journals has increased steeply over the past few decades and <a href="http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2016/04/publishing/fracking-the-ecosystem-periodicals-price-survey-2016/">continues to climb</a>. Academic libraries, already caught in an economic squeeze, are finding it difficult to acquire new journal subscriptions or, in the worst case, are even canceling existing subscriptions. </p>
<p>Either way, faculty and students find they are unable to access journal articles that could further their research and learning. </p>
<p>In my 26 years as an academic librarian, I have witnessed the <a href="http://sites.tufts.edu/scholarlycommunication/open-access/the-serials-crisis-explained/">serials crisis</a> transition from the print to the digital world with no relief from ever-escalating subscription costs. Early hopes that a digital publishing environment would lead to lower costs and greater access have failed to bear fruit. </p>
<p>In view of such rising costs and the failure to achieve universal access, a <a href="https://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin12">conference held in Berlin</a> in December 2015 announced the launch of a radical open access initiative – OA 2020. </p>
<p>The OA 2020 initiative calls for the rapid flipping of the financial model of academic journal publishing. It proposes to replace subscriptions for journals with an open access model funded through fees charged to scholarly authors. </p>
<p>Could such a model work? </p>
<h2>Cost of journals</h2>
<p>Worldwide, the academic journal industry nets an <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/news/article/?articleId=1355652">estimated US$8.3 billion per year</a>. Most of this income is generated through annual subscriptions. In other words, the consumer – the academic library or individual subscriber – covers the cost of academic journal publishing as well as the (<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-11-03/academic-publishing-can-t-remain-such-a-great-business">sometimes substantial</a>) profits reaped by publishers. </p>
<p>OA 2020 has proposed a financial flip to a model based on what are known as “article processing charges (APCs).” An APC is a charge paid by an author of journal article once the article has been accepted for publication.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142726/original/image-20161021-1788-v5i5q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Academic libraries are finding it difficult to keep up with the rising costs of journals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewphotography/4995623889/in/photolist-8BrSWn-bpCgvC-8Fxgv3-cktvPo-hW9GkX-6qoPNi-4KHMs1-eyiTjs-dwVrNo-4ZUyno-5Emj44-bVpm9T-dY2Z8D-4pmL92-923VJQ-osTWCE-eem4U-iskTFu-96kTx-bUYNFv-bbwByr-5Y64MV-aTkCng-fgPTrW-2UwTw-aVn2eF-82ipB5-WiwuD-dQp8kV-6tQvry-4nj6YZ-4P3LnY-dQuHnG-ajydF-ppsKuz-RcM8t-ghnoDc-7PBmY8-kb9aZB-kcvb9-7LGHx3-qCBt6i-2XUSwK-59LGLq-oJ6VNR-chQiW-bk4t2G-34SFNT-5CNcg-dvNU6a">Matt Madd</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In limited use at present, APCs in most cases are paid for by scholars’ institutions or through grants. Once an APC has been paid, the article is published as open access and is freely available for anyone to read. </p>
<p>The cost of these APCs varies widely: A study that looked at APCs between August 2014 through July 2015 found costs ranging from a <a href="https://www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/apcs-and-subscriptions">low of $240 to a high of $6,800</a>. Half of all APCs fell between $1,534 and $2,579.</p>
<p>The backers of OA 2020 propose that academic libraries cover the cost of APCs. The billions currently spent each year on journal subscriptions could be repurposed into paying the cost of APCs. </p>
<p>In one scenario, the funds could continue to be managed by academic libraries. Libraries would then be responsible for covering the cost of the APCs generated by their campus’ authors – the same way libraries cover the cost of subscriptions for their campuses.</p>
<p>In a different scenario, the funds could go directly to faculty and other campus researchers who would then have discretionary control over their allocated publication funds. In either scenario, publishers would need to price their APCs to cover their expenses plus any profits they hope to recoup. </p>
<p>The goal of OA 2020 is to create a system in which <a href="http://liber2016.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/1400-1420_Schimmer_Open_Access_2020.pdf">90 percent of paid journal subscriptions cease to exist</a>. Scholarly articles published in those journals would then be freely and immediately available to everyone. </p>
<p>For scholars, OA 2020’s universal open access model offers the promise of increasing both the transparency and impact of their research. For the average citizen, it means unrestricted access to the published results of research financed by public funds. </p>
<p>To date, 69 scholarly organizations have <a href="http://oa2020.org/mission">expressed support</a> for the OA 2020 initiative. Most of these, however, come from a small group of European nations. For the rest of the world, including the United States, the open access proposal remains largely controversial. </p>
<h2>Green Open Access</h2>
<p>To understand the controversy behind this proposal, let’s first understand how journals are made available to wider public through open access. There are two main approaches – one approach is Green Open Access; the other, Gold Open Access. </p>
<p>So, what is Green Open Access? </p>
<p>Green Open Access relies on a practice under which scholars deposit their work (typically previously published articles but also preprints, theses, dissertations, data sets, images, digital maps, etc.) into a digital repository that can be accessed for free by anyone. This is a form of self-archiving. </p>
<p>Virtually all green repositories are associated with, and financed by, higher education institutions. While there is no charge for scholars to deposit their works, green repositories incur costs associated with data curation, servers and repository software packages. These costs are most often centrally funded by the parent academic institution while the repositories themselves are typically managed by academic libraries. </p>
<p>Green Open Access repositories have proven popular. The number of green repositories grew from <a href="http://roar.eprints.org/view/year">two in 1991 to 4,249 in 2016</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142727/original/image-20161021-1773-1vvypww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scholars can self archive their manuscripts so they can be available under Open Access. But there are challenges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mckln/3449347231/in/photolist-6fNNKZ-49zLVc-fnVNJ9-iR336y-51ojDi-ffBWir-sq8PQm-sGJaMP-etnbH-51sBff-sGHpY2-pLViJs-bLqrgT-qQW3x1-rvsB8x-b89oaB-sGwK7L-sGHjye-sGwKuQ-qFCyb1-dQBZnU-sq8MLb-sEoX4y-sEoVYC-rKHouU-4iDWss-fLSNJV-hTMkWJ-h5xXrR-q1D5Z1-C3Maa-9v57NB-qfVtq5-4iGCsa-p1fNeR-4jm3tj-qfVt8b-2PPgpE-pmrUut-9v57Lv-nFkFUj-9V6VVX-9Z6Bge-4wD4ne-q1DKb3-q1D6yN-qfVtGY-9v87vm-7Ftqxp-99xekA">David Woo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The model, however, has its shortcomings: It imposes an embargo period before an article can be accessed for free. The typical period of embargo is 12 months unless the scholar has paid an APC to make the article open access from the moment it is published. Embargoes limit access to the most current research. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-U-of-California-s/237044">other challenge</a> has been getting busy academics to spend the 10 to 15 minutes required to actually deposit articles post-publication. Even after more than 20 years of existence, green repositories have done nothing to curb the rising costs of journal subscriptions. </p>
<h2>Gold Open Access</h2>
<p>The other approach is Gold Open Access. </p>
<p>Journals published under Gold Open Access are funded for the most part through article publication charges (APCs) paid by authors. Such journals can be nonprofit (for example, <a href="https://www.plos.org">PLOS</a>) or for-profit (for example, <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com">BioMed Central</a>). </p>
<p>The chief advantages of Gold Open Access are that there are no embargo periods and no need for authors to self-archive. However, deserving scholars who lack access to sufficient grant or institutional funding cannot publish their work under this model. </p>
<p>One concern with this model has been that a pay-to-publish scenario could marginalize the work of underfunded scholars – <a href="https://www.library.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/Ginny-Steel_open-letter_OA2020-PIF_October-2016.pdf">particularly scholars in the global south</a>. </p>
<p>Not only would this be detrimental for the scholars affected by it, in my view it would be also be a loss for the world at large. Research that could have a significant impact on the health, safety or sustainability of the globe could remain invisible through lack of publication. </p>
<p>And that’s not the only concern: Gold Open Access has led to the emergence of <a href="https://scholarlyoa.com/2016/01/05/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2016/">predatory journals</a> willing to publish anything for a fee, regardless of the quality of the research or the writing. </p>
<h2>Can both models coexist?</h2>
<p>Coming back to OA 2020, it is a proposal squarely in the Gold Open Access camp. </p>
<p>As discussed, under the Gold Open Access model articles are funded through APCs provided by authors. If the financial model of scholarly publishing is flipped from subscriptions to a model based on APCs, all articles could be available to readers for free. This would help realize the long-standing dream of univresal open access. </p>
<p>Of course there is nothing to prevent Green and Gold Open Access models from coexisting. The two are complementary, not adversarial. A point to note is that green repositories are under the <a href="http://legacy.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/overview.htm#repositories">control of academic institutions</a> rather than publishers. So the cost of funding both models simultaneously represents an economic burden that academic institutions may not be able to shoulder indefinitely. </p>
<h2>Is OA2020 economically viable?</h2>
<p>OA2020 proposes taking the funds currently spent on journal subscriptions and repurposing them to pay APCs. Do the numbers add up?</p>
<p>Using a rigorous economic analysis, the team of librarians, information scientists and economists who authored the study <a href="http://icis.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/UC-Pay-It-Forward-Final-Report.rev_.7.18.16.pdf">PayItForward</a> examined the feasibility of a flip from the subscription model to full Gold Open Access. The team <a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/08/24/the-costs-of-flipping-our-dollars-to-gold/">found that</a> such a flip might be economically viable and concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Despite higher overall costs to publish, there are scenarios in which research universities can afford a system of APC-funded journals, and even scenarios where costs could go down over time.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Could the market decide?</h2>
<p>Could subscriptions to academic journals become as much an artifact of the past as pay phones and VHS tapes? </p>
<p>There certainly are skeptics. And there are good reasons for their skepticism: For one, the influential U.S.-based Association of Research Libraries has not embraced the proposal. Thus far, only one U.S. institution has signed on to <a href="http://oa2020.org/mission">support the OA 2020</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142728/original/image-20161021-1760-5c7eu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could the market decide?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/slumadridcampus/5736110401/in/photolist-9JT4Mc-oAo3D9-6DBG3Y-e5FCJb-fiksz9-doNwXT-9AaXbn-9AaXvi-9AdUH7-9VKYFM-bZvRSU-4vMh8G-jdPDJd-9cKPBv-8epoS5-eKpM6d-s4PjWe-dAykep-bQcz4D-o8cS7i-9AdUJJ-9AaXvV-9qk3J2-a5JTh7-FPJVQ-bfVRm4-quU1i8-dxyggs-f27Bu8-k36zt-8Hpynr-q3NEgy-9kxQp9-e4T6Fn-bB5AsA-gSSzpw-DuXEQ4-5T5WZE-9AdU1J-e4YKxW-9ic5yr-9GVZNQ-9GVZKb-8HpsMe-brbLZ2-pSgSkj-9AdUEG-9AaWKK-bFZjNe-9AaWYr">Saint Louis University Madrid Campus Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, skeptics fear academic publishers will charge such high APCs that the academy will, as a whole, <a href="http://www.arl.org/storage/documents/substituting-apcs-for-subscriptions-20july2016.pdf">end up at a bigger financial disadvantage</a> than it is under the subscription model.</p>
<p>However, in my view, such a fear may be an exaggerated one. The workings of the same marketplace that has allowed academic publishers to consistently raise subscription prices could work against publishers in an entirely Gold Open Access marketplace. </p>
<p>Under the current model, the cost of journal subscriptions is a business transaction between academic libraries and publishers. Insulated from subscription costs, scholars have, as the saying goes, “no skin in the game.” </p>
<p>Instead of publishing without regard for cost and leaving academic libraries to pick up the tab, scholarly authors in an entirely gold open access world will be motivated to consider cost. </p>
<p>Just like any consumer, authors will be able to balance quality (a journal’s ranking) with cost (how much it charges to publish an article) when deciding where to publish. Market forces will dictate that highly ranked journals charging excessive APCs will drive their customers (authors) to publish in lower ranked, but cheaper, journals. </p>
<p><a href="http://madlibbing.berkeley.edu/economic-thoughts-about-gold-open-access/">In the words of</a> economist and UC Berkeley University librarian <a href="http://www.jeff-mason.com/">Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“By engaging authors in the economic decision about where to publish, we will create article-level (submission) price competition between journals and publishers.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The goal of flipping to an all Gold Open Access model by 2020 might seem audacious. But at least some serious conversations have started.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald A. Barclay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The public pays for academic research and then again to read the published results of that research. A new initiative proposes a radical Open Access model. Can it work?Donald A. Barclay, Deputy University Librarian, University of California, MercedLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/581982016-04-28T10:09:01Z2016-04-28T10:09:01ZHas the library outlived its usefulness in the age of Internet? You’d be surprised<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120106/original/image-20160425-22360-1c7d6nm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Library space is changing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatelive/6461600427/in/photolist-8xvNPX-ecbBeY-ec5WtB-7d3LwX-aQZoFV-acojfU-ackt5X-dyJy3z-ecbBhC-uxsoF1-DAVMqV-DNSor6-pJkfAs-bbmpCZ-edVo2d-ecbBdW-9ydSka-8xdadY-pRaek4-asGh62-BJHv4Y-aQZoCB-ec5WCH-dyQ2KY-ec5WAi-ec5WxZ-ecbBds-nhceWn-dyKhaK-ec5Wt8-ec5Wxk-bdXxUB-ecbBcW-ec5Wvi-dyKh8H-ec5WGM-9WoNQZ-8UrNTt-bKVNuZ-7d7CPu-ec5Wxe-cZGg1E-ec5WAV-8Upu7K-dRg6Gh-9qeb2G-8xj9ZG-bqfgqx-8xvsXe-9EkMny">Penn State</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/years-of-cuts-threaten-to-put-college-out-of-reach-for-more-students">U.S. institutions of higher education</a> and <a href="http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-260SP">U.S. local governments</a> are under extraordinary pressure to cut costs and eliminate from institutional or governmental ledgers any expenses whose absence would cause little or no pain.</p>
<p>In this political climate, academic and public libraries <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/can-the-american-library-_n_1096484.html?utm_hp_ref=libraries-in-crisis">may be in danger</a>. The existence of vast amounts of information – a lot of it free – on the Internet might suggest that the library has outlived its usefulness.</p>
<p>But has it? The numbers tell a very different story.</p>
<p>In spite of the findings of a survey in which Americans say they are <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/09/15/libraries-at-the-crossroads/">using public libraries less</a>, the usage numbers reported by libraries indicate the opposite. </p>
<h2>Some upward trends</h2>
<p>In the last two decades, the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/">total number of U.S. public libraries slightly increased</a> – inching up from 8,921 in 1994 to 9,082 in 2012 (a gain of 2.14 percent). Over the same period, the data also show that <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/">use of public libraries in the U.S went up</a> as well. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120094/original/image-20160425-22387-1l3340r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. public library usage statistics: 1993-2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chart created by Donald A. Barclay, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here’s what data on circulation (books and other items checked out to library users) and annual visits to public libraries reveal.</p>
<p>The number of books and other items borrowed from U.S. public libraries increased from 6.5 items per capita in 1993 to 8.0 items per capita in 2012 (up 23 percent). Over the same time span, the number of visits to U.S. public libraries rose 22.5 percent. </p>
<p>The one major public library usage measure that did decrease was the number of times library users asked questions of reference librarians, dropping 18 percent from 1993 to 2012. </p>
<p>The popularity of U.S. public libraries is, it seems, at least as strong as it was before the web became a household word (much less a household necessity).</p>
<h2>Rise of the e-book</h2>
<p>For academic libraries, the data are more mixed. Circulation of physical items (books, DVDs, etc.) in U.S. academic libraries has been on a <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_701.40.asp">steady decline throughout the web era</a>, falling 29 percent from 1997 to 2011. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120095/original/image-20160425-22390-1lyyhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Total circulations (in 1000s) by U.S. degree-granting post-secondary institution libraries: 1997 through 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chart created by Donald A. Barclay, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More tellingly, over the same time span and among the same academic libraries, the annual number of circulations (of books, DVDs, etc.) per full-time student <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_701.40.asp">dropped from 20 circulations to 10 (down 50 percent)</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120096/original/image-20160425-22383-pj8qyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of circulation transactions per full-time student in U.S. degree-granting post-secondary institution libraries: 1997 through 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chart created by Donald A. Barclay, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That fewer books are circulating is hardly a surprise given the vast amount of scholarly information (the bulk of it purchased with academic library budget dollars) that is now available to students via their electronic device of choice. </p>
<p>Electronic scholarly journals have driven their <a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november08/tenopir/11tenopir.html">print-format predecessors to obsolescence</a>, if not quite extinction, while e-books have become increasingly plentiful.</p>
<p>In 2012, U.S. academic libraries collectively held <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038.pdf">252,599,161 e-books</a>. This means that over the course of about a decade, U.S. academic libraries have acquired e-books <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038.pdf">equal to about one-fourth the total number</a> of physical books, bound volumes of old journals, government documents and other paper materials acquired by those same libraries since 1638 – the year Harvard College established the first academic library in what is now the United States.</p>
<p>E-books are not only plentiful, they are popular with academic users (in spite of some shortcomings in usability). For example, data provided to the author show that when the University of California, San Diego made a collection of academic e-books available to students and faculty through the popular JSTOR interface, the usage numbers proved impressive. </p>
<p>In just under a year, UCSD students and faculty used 11,992 JSTOR e-books, racking up 59,120 views and 34,258 downloads. In response to user demand, the UCSD Library outright purchased over 3,100 of the titles offered via JSTOR, making those e-books a permanent part of the UCSD library collection. </p>
<h2>Who needs the encyclopedia?</h2>
<p>As with circulation numbers, reference questions asked of librarians in U.S. academic libraries have <a href="http://www.ala.org/research/sites/ala.org.research/files/content/librarystats/librarymediacenter/Condition_of_Libraries_1999.20.pdf">undergone a sharp decline</a> – standing now at 56,000,000 per year, down 28.4 percent from 16 years ago. For the 60 largest U.S. academic libraries, the average number of <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/getpubcats.asp?sid=041#050">reference transactions dropped from</a> 6,056 per week in 1994 to 1,294 per week in 2012 (down 79 percent). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120097/original/image-20160425-22369-lxihi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average number of reference transactions per week for the 60 largest U.S. academic libraries: 1994-2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chart created by Donald A. Barclay, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s not much mystery behind the drop in reference transactions. When I first began working as an academic reference librarian in 1990, hardly a day went by when I didn’t put my hands on such reference works as <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Places_Rated_Almanac.html?id=S7yfFD7xMvoC">Places Rated Almanac</a>, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/time-series/statistical_abstracts.html">The Statistical Abstract of the United States</a> and <a href="https://catalog.libraries.wm.edu/Record/623254">College Catalogs on Microfiche</a> to answer reference questions. </p>
<p>Today, students access information digitally. The Google app on their smartphones allows students to look up information they once would have found only in analog, library-owned reference sources. And as for that old reference warhorse, the printed encyclopedia – Britannica <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/Encyclopaedia-Britannica-print-encyclopaedia">churned out its final set in 2010</a>.</p>
<p>Further contributing to the decline of in-person reference service is the fact that students are increasingly able to consult with academic librarians via the Internet. </p>
<p>By 2012, 77 percent of U.S. academic libraries were <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038_supp.pdf">offering reference services</a> via email or web chat. Currently, over 400 academic libraries provide around-the-clock, chat-based reference service as members of <a href="http://www.oclc.org/en-US/questionpoint/features.html">OCLC’s 24/7 Reference Cooperative</a>, a global library cooperative that provides shared technology services.</p>
<p>Given only the above numbers, the hasty conclusion would seem to be that everything is online and nobody uses academic libraries any more. </p>
<p>But not so fast. </p>
<p>Even while circulation and reference transaction numbers were tanking, the data show a steady increase in the number of people actually setting foot in academic libraries. </p>
<p>The cumulative weekly gate count for the 60 largest U.S. academic libraries increased nearly 39 percent from <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt04_421.asp">2000</a> to <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_701.50.asp">2012</a>. Library gate count data for all U.S. institutions of higher education show a similar (38 percent) increase from <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001341.PDF">1998</a> to <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014038.pdf">2012</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120098/original/image-20160425-22364-5ofada.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cumulative weekly gate count for the 60 largest U.S. academic libraries: 2000-2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chart created by Donald A. Barclay, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So if students are not going to the academic library to access print collections or ask reference questions, why are they going at all?</p>
<h2>The lure of the academic library</h2>
<p>I believe that students are trekking to academic libraries because academic libraries have been actively reinventing themselves to meet the needs of today’s students. </p>
<p>Academic library square footage is <a href="https://theconversation.com/turning-a-page-downsizing-the-campus-book-collections-45808">increasingly being converted</a> from space to house printed books to space for students to study, collaborate, learn and, yes, socialize. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120107/original/image-20160425-22364-rtn4ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libraries are no longer cold, forbidding spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hocolibrary/15830014372/in/photolist-q7QXLh-aS2N7p-zUSan-gwHGB3-6A131C-obwsab-bA2ZLW-aATYP3-ciVUi1-hpi6mY-obinGD-q7QXM9-FKKk8-bAhLLk-5D1iwg-bi5tWT-hpidEq-ieakp-bDPy4j-obwsxW-6X5SH1-obAJNg-aqU8qn-obsnQE-hpi8Sj-o9ytPA-4FqFSB-hmiYK-2ZbHJF-bDPym5-7fY4yi-xYBiK-9GUfgH-aqU8JB-bAhPDF-odnJuH-obsna1-bAhPPa-obAKo4-dgof96-od3XL3-6PyGrp-e4T6Fn-obin3T-9dqdt9-dYQinL-5Av8e4-q7xjqD-8QUspM-c9D1aY">Howard County Library System Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Besides providing some of the last refuges of quiet in a noisy, distraction-filled world, academic libraries have taken such student-friendly steps as relaxing (or eliminating) longstanding prohibitions on food and drink, providing 24/7 study spaces and generally recreating themselves to be comfortable and friendly rather than cold and forbidding.</p>
<p>Examples of how forward-leaning academic libraries are attracting students include:</p>
<p>The Grand Valley State University Library’s Knowledge Market <a href="http://www.gvsu.edu/library/knowledge-market-17.htm">provides students with peer consultation services</a> for research, writing, public speaking, graphic design, and analyzing quantitative data. Among a number of specialized spaces, the library offers rooms devoted to media preparation, digital collaboration, and presentation practice.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120105/original/image-20160425-22383-1pzi2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Library space is changing: three girls using a computer at San Jose library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanjoselibrary/3887312861/in/photolist-6VvuFx-bB84up-nzWGyF-7CKL83-7Cs7Fj-7Za3pd-fDgVtN-bcjhb4-6nqLXC-6jKUSV-5QTDjw-dxe99H-rz4K51-biy84k-edquHV-7Cogu2-geRSpX-5jkp2F-dxjsKs-DxSy6-fF9atf-gTFf2C-gTEK2o-7aXSx1-qWGsAw-4Hcxbf-7H9rsn-gTFujp-ncybMZ-gTHBGt-ofQfw6-gTHhWR-pXphPf-gTH4jn-9hqvVY-3UV9BD-5wtRUm-9gG4Xa-3zZdc3-5Eim9k-edwa69-gTGKvX-gHfUWm-dPcECQ-fHCyFV-6zEeKu-fHCyX4-eSZWE7-eSNwVT-58tmS6">San José Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The libraries of North Carolina State University (NCSU) offer <a href="https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/services/makerspace">Makerspace areas</a> where students get hands-on practice with electronics, 3D printing and scanning, cutting and milling, creating wearables, and connecting objects to the Internet of Things. In addition, NCSU students can visit campus libraries to make use of digital media labs, media production studios, music practice rooms, visualization spaces and presentation rooms, among other specialized spaces.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://library.osu.edu/researchcommons/consultations/">Ohio State University Library Research Commons</a> offers not only a Writing Center but also consultation services for copyright, data management plans, funding opportunities and human subjects research. Specialized spaces in the library include conference and project rooms, digital visualization and brainstorming rooms, and colloquia and classroom spaces.</p>
<h2>Reimagining libraries</h2>
<p>By thinking beyond the book as they reimagine libraries, academic librarians are adding onto and broadening a long learning tradition rather than turning their backs on it. <a href="http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub129/pub129.pdf/view">In the words of Sam Demas, college librarian emeritus of Carleton College</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For several generations, academic librarians were primarily preoccupied with the role of their library buildings as portals to information, print and later digital. In recent years, we have reawakened to the fact that libraries are fundamentally about people – how they learn, how they use information and how they participate in the life of a learning community. As a result, we are beginning to design libraries that seek to restore parts of the library’s historic role as an institution of learning, culture and intellectual community. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Any library, public or academic, able to live up to so important a role will never outlive its usefulness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald A. Barclay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The popularity of libraries has not diminished. Numbers show more people are going to libraries than ever before. Here’s why.Donald A. Barclay, Deputy University Librarian, University of California, MercedLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.