I looked at publicly available information about open access at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I was unable to interview the UNCG Librarian in charge of scholarly communication, Anna Craft, prior to Tuesday November 2nd, at 9:00am. The information included here is based on what I could find online.
Currently, there is a plan in place for the development and support of Open Access at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This information is publicly available through the guide, https://uncg.libguides.com/scholarlycomm.[1] One of the ways that UNCG supports Open Access is through NC DOCKS, “a Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship”. This open access repository is maintained by the Electronic Resources & Information Technologies department at UNCG Library. Additional participating universities include Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, and Western Carolina University. According to the website, NC DOCKS “includes many full text articles, audio recordings, dissertations, and other formats. All materials are indexed by Google and are freely available to scholars and researchers world-wide.”[2]
Another Open Access initiative includes the Open Access Publishing Support Fund. This grant assists “full-time faculty, full-time EHRA employee, or enrolled graduate student[s]” in publishing their work in Open Access Journals. The grant is meant to offset “article processing charge (APC) costs associated with making published scholarship openly accessible.” It seems that each grant is no more than $1,000, but 29 grants were given in the 2020-2021 academic year. While not every person received the maximum amount, the university still spent over $27,000.[3] The university has also “partnered with several academic publishers to offer publishing discounts and article processing charge credits to campus authors” as a means to provide access to Open Access publishing.[4]
I was not able to determine the actual budget of NC DOCKS or the other Open Access initiatives. As stated above the university spent just over $27,000 on publishing assistance alone in one academic year. UNCG’s current library budget is “$4,045,762.”[5] It seems likely that the repository also takes thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to maintain over the course of a year. I could not determine if the repository was supported through the budget or another option like an endowment. An endowment would be best because the university would not be able to cut funding to the repository in time of economic crisis.
The primary benefit of the further development and support of Open Access is more access. Students, faculty, and staff at UNCG will have more access to more information. It removes some budgetary concerns regarding how the university plans to pay for all this information. While Open Access seems to benefit libraries greatly, there are always risks with adopting new methods and new technology. Certainly, some students, faculty, and staff may be concerned about rigor and peer-review status of Open Access journals. There is always a chance that an Open Access repository fails and the information inside will not be accessible after all. Whereas printed materials do not require specialized technology to access and use, all electronic materials do.
NC DOCKS and other Open Access initiatives are only successful if they are used for their intended purpose. Success is determined by the number of students, faculty, staff accessing and using Open Access materials. This can be achieved by tracking the number of times an article is accessed, downloaded, or otherwise viewed through the library portal. Of course, the library will need to consider privacy concerns before implementing a tracking methodology but that is one way to determine success.
Endnotes
[1] Scholarly Communications at UNC Greensboro: Home. Research Guides. (2021) Retrieved October 31, 2021, https://uncg.libguides.com/scholarlycomm
[2] About Us. About Us, NC DOCKS (North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship). (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2021, from http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/about.aspx.
[3] Scholarly Communications at UNC Greensboro: Open Access Publishing Fund. Research Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://uncg.libguides.com/scholarlycomm/oapf.
[4] Scholarly Communications at UNC Greensboro: Other OA Publication Funding Options. Research Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://uncg.libguides.com/scholarlycomm/other-oa
[5] Library Budget Information. Budget > the university of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://library.uncg.edu/info/budget/.
I have neither given nor received aid while working on this assignment. I have completed the graded portion BEFORE looking at anyone else's work on this assignment. - Claire M