38 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 302 2021 Just as the academic library community desires a digital platform or clearinghouse to help understand how much support open and community-based infrastructures are receiving and from whom, individual academic libraries need tools to help measure and report their own contributions across their organizations. Questions about open access collections and staff time are now part of CARL’s member statistics program for the first time, which will be an important international contribution. In the absence of widely adopted tools for such disclosure in the US, some libraries, such as The University of Arizona Libraries, maintain public web pages listing their contributions to open content and open infrastructure and services.10 These interim reporting mechanisms could provide the basis for more standardized data collection that libraries can use to assess their own contributions relative to peers. Data across Organizations LYRASIS is making progress on the clearinghouse concept through a pilot program called the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP). Among OACIP’s objectives are to “centralize the administration and funding of open access initiatives or programs at multiple scales and make transparent to the community at large who is participating in each investment community.”11 According to Sharla Lair, LYRASIS senior strategist of open access and scholarly communication initiatives, “OACIP is a funding infrastructure that supports a multi-stakeholder funding community. What does this mean? Academic libraries (of all sizes), public libraries, museums, archives, funding agencies, provost offices, & departments can collectively fund these programs.”12 Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) has developed a rigorous research agenda based on investigating critical gaps, funding structures, and vulnerabilities and risks related to the development and maintenance of open infrastructure. In its recently released strategic plan, IOI commits to “increase our collective understanding of the funding and infrastructure landscape…[and] provide strategic support &
Previous Page Next Page