Book description
Academic libraries routinely struggle to afford access to expensive
journals, and patrons may not be able to obtain every scholarly paper
they need. Is Open Access (OA) the answer? In this ALA Editions Special
Report, Crawford helps readers understand what OA is (and isn't), as he
concisely * Analyzes the factors that have brought us to the current
state of breakdown, including the skyrocketing costs of science,
technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) journals; consolidation of
publishers and diminishing price competition; and shrinking library
budgets * Summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of different OA models,
such as “Green,” “Gold,” Gratis,” “Libre,” and various hybrid forms *
Discusses ways to retain peer-review, and methods for managing OA in the
library, including making OA scholarly publishing available to the
general public Addressing the subject from the library perspective while
taking a realistic view of corporate interests, Crawford presents a
coherent review of what Open Access is today and what it may become.
Walt Crawford is an internationally recognized writer and speaker on
libraries, technology, policy and media. Author of numerous books,
articles, and columns, Crawford is also the creator, writer and
publisher of Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, an ejournal on the
intersections of libraries, policy, technology and media published
monthly since 2001. He maintains a blog on these and other issues, Walt
at Random.
