This webinar will help library staff evaluate opportunities to invest in open access content and programs. Libraries face a sometimes bewildering plethora of publishers and content providers appealing for library funds and support for transformative agreements and various open access programs, memberships, and initiatives. How can your library develop evaluative frameworks to make informed, consistent, transparent, and collaborative decisions? In this online class, three speakers from academic libraries and consortia will provide context, instruments, and practical case studies for evaluation and decision-making at their organizations and beyond.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this class, students will be able to:
Recognize key types of open access (OA) investment opportunities available to libraries.
Identify key potential criteria for libraries to use to evaluate OA investment opportunities.
Apply these criteria to evaluate a range of OA programs for local relevance and value.
Adapt instruments used by other libraries and consortia for use at their own libraries.
Instructors
Rachel Borchardt serves as the Scholarly Communications Librarian at American University in Washington, DC, where she oversees implementation of her university’s scholarly communication framework to implement values-led open investments, among other responsibilities. Her research interests focus on equity in publishing and research metrics and evaluation, and she co-authored the 2015 (free e-book) Meaningful Metrics. Prior to transferring to her current role in 2022, she served as a science librarian at AU and Emory University.
Erin Gallagher serves as Chair of Acquisitions & Collections Services at the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF). She leads a brilliant team of professionals who steer collection management activities and initiatives on behalf of the Libraries. She serves on the Open Access Committee and chairs the Libraries’ Collections Committee. Prior to joining UF, she held e-resources and collections management positions at Reed College and Rollins College, and started her career as a Collections Consultant for a major library book vendor.
Michael Rodriguez serves as Senior Strategist for Content and Scholarly Communication at Lyrasis, where he advances consortial licensing and open access initiatives at a national scale. Prior to joining Lyrasis in 2022, he was Collections Strategist at the University of Connecticut, where he led library collection development and strategic initiatives. He also has served as a Licensing & Acquisitions Librarian, Electronic Resources Librarian, and E-Learning Librarian.
