Open Access (OA), like every other publishing or distribution model, carries with it both benefits and costs. But unlike other models, OA is built on a foundation of values and beliefs about how scholarly communication ought to be conducted—this makes conversations about its costs and benefits both difficult and fraught with passion. And yet as OA continues to grow in importance—and in financial impact—such conversations are essential. What can we do to make the scholarly communication space more amenable to open discussion about Open Access?
Author: Liz O'Brien
Ever come across a Smithsonian Libraries image in our Galaxy that you wish you could frame? The Galaxy of Images contains thousands of beautiful images scanned from our collection. Now’s your chance to own and display a treasured piece of the Libraries in your home or office!
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), in its global efforts to digitize biodiversity literature and make it freely available to the world, ensures that this precious knowledge is available to everyone, everywhere. The BHL currently provides access to over 42 million pages and over 87,000 images and is changing the face of research methodology. Scientists around the world are using BHL to identify and classify species, facilitate further scientific research, and support conservation efforts to prevent extinctions.
It is with warm wishes that we send off four retiring employees! Best of luck to Alice, Ann, Dave, and Ron!
The Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library recently acquired Ippolito Salviani’s Aquatilium animalium historiae (Rome, 1554), a classic, foundational work on fishes. The book is one of three 16th-century works that established ichthyology as a modern science. The Libraries holds the other two – Belon’s De aquatilibus (1553, a Latin translation of his Histoire de la nature des estranges poissons marins, 1551) and Rondelet’s Libri de piscibus marinis (1554) – and has now completed the trio. The Aquatilium animalium historiae is a tremendous asset for the National Museum of Natural History’s curators in the Division of Fishes, who advised on the purchase.
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is profiled in Searching for Sustainability: Strategies from Eight Digitized Special Collections, a major study funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and conducted by Ithaka S+R in partnership with the Association of Research Libraries. The study shares good practices for teams planning for and managing digitized resources.
On January 15, the Smithsonian Libraries, Smithsonian Institution Archives, and the Office of the Chief Information Officer presented the first talk of a new lecture series, The Open Access Future, to address the Smithsonian Institution on the future of libraries, museums, and archives in a digital world. In 2014, the series will feature speakers with expertise in topics such as scholarly publishing, research data curation and communication, and altmetrics.