SPEC Kit 310: Author Addenda · 15
All but a few of the responding institutions (38 or
93%) have a public Web site that serves to educate staff
and authors on the issue of author rights and author
addenda. Other popular means of training staff are
face-to-face workshops (73%), handouts on key issues
(59%), and PowerPoint slides (49%). The library staff
charged with spearheading training efforts is primar-
ily a scholarly communications officer (if the library
has one), a library committee devoted to scholarly
communications activities, or library administrators
(55%, 48%, and 45% respectively).
Educating authors on the use of an addendum
takes place mostly when presenting on compliance
with public access policies (84%). However, other situ-
ations include discussing depositing authors’ work
in a digital repository (74%), author sharing of their
work (70%) and use of their work in teaching (65%).
When queried about which department or group
on campus takes a leadership role in promoting the
use of addenda, predictably 100% of the respondents
indicated the library. However, of interest is which
other groups or units also serve a role. Thirty-five
percent of respondents confirmed that the faculty
senate and/or the provost’s office is involved in a
leadership role, and 33% answered that a different
group on campus fulfills that role, ranging from the
“VP of Research,” to “Academic Technology,” to the
“Faculty board advising the library.” Notable is that
this work takes place across a wide variety of campus
units outside the library system.
Author Education
Activities
Two of the most used and most effective activities to
educate authors about using an author addendum
are presentations to faculty and one-on-one visits
with faculty. Eighty-six percent have used faculty
presentations to convey information about addenda
66% indicated this was the most effective form of out-
reach and 63% indicated that on-on-one conversations
with faculty was the most effective. Handouts and
brochures are used often by libraries (65%), as are Web
sites (60%), although the effectiveness of these efforts
ranked much lower than their frequency of use (at
17% and 26% respectively). Across the board, results
show that libraries made varied efforts to educate au-
thors, but that most were viewed as not very effective.
Sixty percent of respondents have made presentations
to graduate students, but only 26% noted that they felt
this was an effective activity. This result may imply
that the efficacy of efforts to educate graduate students
is not easily measurable since graduate students are
not publishing much and are more likely to be con-
tributors to a paper than the primary author. Perhaps
in the future, the value of libraries’ efforts at outreach
to graduate students will become more apparent.
The respondents were invited to describe up to
three activities that were most effective in accom-
plishing their outreach efforts to educate authors
about addenda. Comments revealed, again, that
one-on-one meetings with authors, where librarians
have the opportunity to discuss author rights, were
the most common activity. Presentations to faculty
groups, and often over a lunch “series,” a brown bag,
or at a departmental meeting, were also deemed ef-
fective. One respondent wrote, “Presentations at
formal and informal department events like faculty
meetings and coffee hours have been very effective
in getting the word out about author rights.” Another
commented that they did “presentations to faculty
departments and groups where faculty get the ‘deer
in the headlights’ look when you describe what hap-
pens when they give away their author rights. They
start using addenda after that and also want to par-
ticipate in the institutional repository. There have
also been many individual meetings as follow-up
from these department meetings.” One library felt
that faculty presentations are effective, but that it
was “difficult to get such opportunities,” which may
suggest that presentations are useful if you can get
faculty to commit the time to listen. Other libraries
have sent letters and e-mails to faculty, and one li-
brary described presentations to grant writers.
The main topic in outreach activities about ad-
denda was copyright law (98%), with institutional
repositories and the freedom to use their work in the
classroom coming in as the second most frequently
addressed topics (71% each). Freedom to share work
All but a few of the responding institutions (38 or
93%) have a public Web site that serves to educate staff
and authors on the issue of author rights and author
addenda. Other popular means of training staff are
face-to-face workshops (73%), handouts on key issues
(59%), and PowerPoint slides (49%). The library staff
charged with spearheading training efforts is primar-
ily a scholarly communications officer (if the library
has one), a library committee devoted to scholarly
communications activities, or library administrators
(55%, 48%, and 45% respectively).
Educating authors on the use of an addendum
takes place mostly when presenting on compliance
with public access policies (84%). However, other situ-
ations include discussing depositing authors’ work
in a digital repository (74%), author sharing of their
work (70%) and use of their work in teaching (65%).
When queried about which department or group
on campus takes a leadership role in promoting the
use of addenda, predictably 100% of the respondents
indicated the library. However, of interest is which
other groups or units also serve a role. Thirty-five
percent of respondents confirmed that the faculty
senate and/or the provost’s office is involved in a
leadership role, and 33% answered that a different
group on campus fulfills that role, ranging from the
“VP of Research,” to “Academic Technology,” to the
“Faculty board advising the library.” Notable is that
this work takes place across a wide variety of campus
units outside the library system.
Author Education
Activities
Two of the most used and most effective activities to
educate authors about using an author addendum
are presentations to faculty and one-on-one visits
with faculty. Eighty-six percent have used faculty
presentations to convey information about addenda
66% indicated this was the most effective form of out-
reach and 63% indicated that on-on-one conversations
with faculty was the most effective. Handouts and
brochures are used often by libraries (65%), as are Web
sites (60%), although the effectiveness of these efforts
ranked much lower than their frequency of use (at
17% and 26% respectively). Across the board, results
show that libraries made varied efforts to educate au-
thors, but that most were viewed as not very effective.
Sixty percent of respondents have made presentations
to graduate students, but only 26% noted that they felt
this was an effective activity. This result may imply
that the efficacy of efforts to educate graduate students
is not easily measurable since graduate students are
not publishing much and are more likely to be con-
tributors to a paper than the primary author. Perhaps
in the future, the value of libraries’ efforts at outreach
to graduate students will become more apparent.
The respondents were invited to describe up to
three activities that were most effective in accom-
plishing their outreach efforts to educate authors
about addenda. Comments revealed, again, that
one-on-one meetings with authors, where librarians
have the opportunity to discuss author rights, were
the most common activity. Presentations to faculty
groups, and often over a lunch “series,” a brown bag,
or at a departmental meeting, were also deemed ef-
fective. One respondent wrote, “Presentations at
formal and informal department events like faculty
meetings and coffee hours have been very effective
in getting the word out about author rights.” Another
commented that they did “presentations to faculty
departments and groups where faculty get the ‘deer
in the headlights’ look when you describe what hap-
pens when they give away their author rights. They
start using addenda after that and also want to par-
ticipate in the institutional repository. There have
also been many individual meetings as follow-up
from these department meetings.” One library felt
that faculty presentations are effective, but that it
was “difficult to get such opportunities,” which may
suggest that presentations are useful if you can get
faculty to commit the time to listen. Other libraries
have sent letters and e-mails to faculty, and one li-
brary described presentations to grant writers.
The main topic in outreach activities about ad-
denda was copyright law (98%), with institutional
repositories and the freedom to use their work in the
classroom coming in as the second most frequently
addressed topics (71% each). Freedom to share work
