Celebrating Open Resources

Think about the last time you paid for textbooks for several courses. Did you pay hundreds of dollars? Or more? Consider how fabulous it would be if you paid just a small fraction of that amount! Open textbooks are the solution to the spiraling textbook costs. And if you are lucky, some of your courses may already have adopted these resources.

Students aren’t the only ones who are thankful for open textbooks. Librarians are staunch supporters of open resources. Libraries often celebrate Open Access Week. Why is this something they think is worth celebrating?

Before we define and explore “open,” watch the following video, Open Access Explained. It will illustrate for you (literally!) what “open” means for researchers. Research is a scholarly conversation, and researchers rely upon and respond to the work of other researchers. As you watch it, keep in mind that it isn’t only scientists and science journals that are primarily affected. Readers and scholars interested in topics as diverse as criminology, military history, and music also benefit. As you watch the video, think about the situation the narrator is in in his wife’s hospital room--have you run into a similar costly situation when you desperately needed information?

Paid subscription is still the dominant model for dissemination of research in scholarly journals. However, this movement to free academic research from the confines of fee for access is growing. For example, many journals, all peer-reviewed, are now available through the Directory of Open Access Journals. So let’s explore what might be there that is of interest to you. Click the Browse Subjects link in the Directory, and select a topic you are studying, or that interests you. Then pick one of the journals that qualifies as open and explore a bit. Jot down the name of the journal and the title of an interesting sounding article, and hang on to them for the first part of your assignment below.

Now that you’ve learned something about open access journals, let’s backtrack to learn more about what qualifies as open. Put briefly, it is defined as such: “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose” (http://opendefinition.org/).

How is “open” different from “free”? Open encompasses both "free" (as in no charge) and free as in freedom to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute.

To clarify, let us refer to the Open Content definition from David Wiley. Wiley refers to open content as meeting the “5R’s”

1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)

2. Reuse - the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form (e.g., make a backup copy of the content)

3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)

4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

Reference: Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the open in open content. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/definition/

So how does open content affect you?

Textbooks

Well, there are those expensive textbooks. Just like with the scholarly journals, there is a reason textbooks cost money (though perhaps not a reason why they cost so muchmoney). Authors (often professors) are paid for writing a textbook, then publishers (who have to pay salaries and rent and utilities, etc.) are paid for publishing the books (add on costs for editorial services, printing, distribution, shipping), then bookstores (who need to be compensated with a cut) sell the books. You can see how the costs add up, and up, and up.

So now you are probably wondering how textbooks could possibly cost very little, or nothing. But if the author is willing to write the book without being paid (and has licensed the work using a Creative Commons license aligning with the five R’s), and if the book resides not on a bookstore’s shelf, but digitally online, and if the server space and editorial support are provided by an educational organization, it could be (and is being) done. To get a sense of open textbooks that are being published, take a look at the Open SUNY Textbooks project or the Open Textbook Library. Remember, while open content is free, there may be some minimal charge involved to cover printing or access.

Use of Online Material

You aren’t just consuming information, such as buying textbooks, but creating information. And when you do, it can often be handy to include and remix great graphics or music that others have produced. You’ll want to give silent thanks to individuals who have licensed their content as open, so you can legally do this. Perhaps you’ll even want to send a message of thanks! (You can explore these ideas further in the Remixing and Sharing Quests in the Information Use challenge.)

So Why Are Those Libraries Celebrating?

Librarians are all about people getting access to the information they need. And if more and more information is open, and thus more accessible and reusable, they have reason to celebrate, as do we all. They also want to bring open access and open resources to the attention of lots of people—those in a position to use this information, and those who might consider licensing their own creations so it is open. So keep your eyes open for Open Access Week celebrations at a library near you!

• 1. Provide the title of the journal you found in the Directory of Open Access Journals, along with the title of the article.

  2. Provide the title of the article you found in DOAJ.

  3. Write a couple of paragraphs about how you might get out the message about the advantages of open content amongst your fellow students or colleagues. Include both your talking points and a specific strategy about how you might increase their awareness.