Organization and Delivery of Scholarly Communications Services by Academic and Research Libraries in the United Kingdom: Observations from Across the Pond

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The U.K. library community has implemented collaborative strategies in key scholarly communication areas such as open access mandate compliance, and U.S. librarians could benefit from learning in greater detail about the practices and experiences of U.K. libraries with respect to how they have organized scholarly communication services. METHODS In order to better understand the scholarly communication activities in U.K. academic and research libraries, and how U.S. libraries could apply that experience in the context of their own priorities, an environmental scan via a survey of U.K. research libraries and in-person interviews were conducted. RESULTS U.K. libraries concentrate their scholarly communication services on supporting compliance with open access mandates and in the development of new services that reflect libraries’ shifting role from information consumer to information producer. DISCUSSION Due to the difference in the requirements of open access mandates in the U.K. as compared to the U.S., scholarly communication services in the U.K. are more focused on supporting compliance efforts. U.S. libraries engage more actively in providing copyright education and consultation than U.K. libraries. Both U.K. and U.S. libraries have developed new services in the areas of research data management and library publishing. CONCLUSION There are three primary takeaways from the experience of U.K. scholarly communication practitioners for U.S. librarians: increase collaboration with offices of research, reconsider current organization and delegation of scholarly communication services, and increase involvement in legislative and policy-making activity in the U.S. with respect to access to research.

The UK Scholarly Communication Licence: Attempting to Cut through the Gordian Knot of the Complexities of Funder Mandates, Publisher Embargoes and Researcher Caution in Achieving Open Access

“…From an institutional point of view, the challenges around implementing OA have become complex and costly, making it difficult for them to design services and processes which enable them to achieve greater open access in an affordable way whilst concurrently satisfying the terms of different mandates [1,3]. The environment is seen as confusing to authors, with institutions and their libraries finding it difficult to give authors simple messages about how to adopt OA practices.…”

“…Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are now often engaged in promoting OA but in doing so frequently face the challenging task of trying to comply concurrently with a number of funder and government OA mandates, whilst at the same time taking account of increasingly complex publisher policies [2]. Policy compliance is often coordinated by university libraries [3], who find themselves in the difficult position of trying to balance the need to comply with mandates with the desire to deliver attractive services to researchers encourage the adoption of OA practices [4]. This is made particularly challenging in a landscape that may be highly volatile-one where there may be widespread agreement with the principle of OA, but where there is no consensus on how it can be best achieved.…”

Interviews with Practitioners in the United Kingdom Reveal Effective Strategies for Open Access Outreach to Researchers

“…Studies related to library OA outreach often focus on lessons learned from efforts at specific institutions, mainly in the United States (Otto, 2016;Vandegrift & Colvin, 2012). Fruin (2017) conducted an environmental scan of OA initiatives in the United Kingdom, including some exploration of outreach activities, although this was not the primary focus of the study. Moving Open Access Implementation Forward provides some suggestions for advocacy based on the experiences of UK practitioners (Blanchett & DeGroff, 2017).…”

Embracing New Trends in Scholarly Communication: From Competency Requirements in the Workplace to LIS Curriculum Presence

“…Many studies (Fruin, 2017;Holister, 2017;Finlay, Tsou, & Sugimoto, 2015;Burpee & Fernandez, 2014;Thomas, 2013;Radom, Feltner-Reichert, & Stringer-Stanback, 2012) reiterate some or all of these activities as existing or emerging scholarly communication services in university libraries around the world. Thomas (2013, p. 167), researching in the North American context, indicates that "many libraries are already working with electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) and running institutional repositories (IRs), and many others are considering further options such as administering open access journals.…”