Open Access and Academic libraries

So in my previous blog I have made mention about the Open Access movement  (OA). I have relayed that its making academic research information available to all at the cost of nothing. Mahalaa/free, or at least it intends to reduce the cost.

So the academic library whose main function is to be the house that stores all the academic information in it and should be on par with new technology that brings about information. Such as the computer whom one uses to go onto the world wide web and gets new information, for example.

Hence, in my opinion academic libraries should play a pivotal role in housing admittance to the open access movement, more so than any other type of library. Our university has signed their support in joining the Open Access movement when they signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access in the Sciences and Humanities.

Open access in libraries offers a range of benefits. Obviously for research purposes in the manner that, open access makes for scholarly material available and in this purpose it allows for research papers to become more intensely available. It will improve the visibility and impact of the researchers work. It allows the researcher to gain immediate and free access to all the literature that the researcher requires to conduct their research. It will allow the researcher to have more control over how they publish and how their publications are used.

It also has benefits for the University Administrators in the manner that in particularly through the implementation of institutional repositories, is more attractive for our University administrators because repositories allow them to access and monitor their research programmes. It makes the research being undertaken at our University more visible and have a positive prestige for our university.  It will enable the research that is conducted here to better account for research output.

Looking now to the library that I'm volunteering at, that is Tafelsig Public Libary. One can clearly see that, their clientele is way different to an academic library. The only type of academia that utilises that library are students. High school and primary school students. Their thirst for information is not as pressuried as researchers. School students, often are satisfied by the information that, they get in the Encyclopedias or academic resource books that are able to provide the information that they require.