Open Expansion: The Intersection of Open Access,

Open Data and OER

Heather JosephExecutive Director, SPARC

ACRL 2015 Annual ConferencePortland, OR

March 27, 2015

A tale of three “open” movements.

Change is afoot.

Source: http://www.openmatters.com/2014/01/new-world-of-digital/

The Internet.

New Channels to Share Work.

New environment for research, teaching and learning.

Digital environment means change.

And LOTS of it.

Access to more, opportunities to do more.

Theoretically.

Opportunities to leverage lower cost distribution mechanisms.

Theoretically.

Despite the promise of the Internet, the materials we most need the freedom to work with remain largely under restrictive

access, pricing and reuse policies.

We have 20th century policies governing 21st century information.

“Open” can provide a solution to a problem, as well as be used as a

lever to create new opportunities.  

Ok. A solution to what kind of problems? 

Let’s consider costs.

Costs for 1-yr Journal Subscriptions

www.righttoresearch.org

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20050828210650/libraries.mit.edu/about/scholarly/expensive-titles.html

Average Textbook Prices

Source: http://www.studentpirgs.org/sites/student/files/reports/A-Cover-to-Cover-Solution_4pdf

$1,207.Average budget for student books

and supplies for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Source http/:trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimaed-undergraduate-budgets-2013-2014

Library budgets & journal prices

Textbook prices and the CPI

Source: www.goa.gov/products/GAO-13-368

“The annual revenues generated by STM journal

publishing were estimated at US $9.4 billion in 2011…”

Source: The STM Report,http://www.stm-assoc.org/2012_12_11_STM_Report_2012.pdf

“During same time period, annual revenues for textbook publishers were estimated at

US $8.8 billion …”

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/txtbks/keynote-nercomp?related=1

And we know where that money comes from…

Libraries.Students & their families.

How can “open” address problem of cost?

Current Market: Intermediaries blunt price

sensitivity.

Now look at that slide again, just substitute “Libraries” and

“Researchers” for students and professors…

Déjà vu…

Creating new models based on “open” removes intermediaries,

and ties payments directly to service/good being purchased.

What about opportunities?

Let’s consider value.

OA, Open Data and OER movements all emphasize the need to enable unobstructed

digital reuse of these materials, to fully exploit the power - and the value - of the information they

contain.

Open Access = Immediate Access + Full Reuse

Text MiningDownloading

Bulk DownloadingData Mining

Semantic SearchingComputational Analysis

Machine Reading

Because these materials are digital, at their core, they are data…

and:

"Data is a valuable national asset that should be available to the

public.”

President Obama, May 13, 2013 Executive Order 

We have a unique opportunity to explore innovative ways to access

and use this vast new wealth of digital info and create new value.

Good for teaching, research and learning, yes, but also…

…good for making.

 Similar goals, values, strategies and

tactics emerging across all three “open” movements aligning

around efforts to:

1. Create infrastructure.  

2. Create Legal Framework.  

3. Create Sustainable Business Models.

4. Create Policy Framework

5. Create Collaborations

Not all perfect harmony.

1. Conflicting business models

2. Privacy/Security

3. Value

Challenges are big, but the Opportunities are bigger.

We can use “open” to help us think bigger.

How can “open” help us solve big problems?

Understanding the implications that a larger vision of “open” as the default mode for research, teaching and learning materials

can have is crucial.

Thank You for Listening.

Heather JosephExecutive Director, SPARC

heather@arl.org@hjoseph, @SPARC_NA