Ayris, P.; (2005) The UK Higher Education library and information environment and the impact of the Open Access movement. Presented at: Editoria commerciale, Open Access e Consorzi: quali scenari per il futuro, Milan, Italy.

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Abstract

Overview: in writing this paper and the accompanying presentation, I was asked by my Italian hosts to provide an overview of current library developments in the UK, to look at Open Access developments here and to evaluate the success or otherwise of that work. This paper attempts to provide a snapshot and evaluation of these issues as they exist at Christmas 2005. Introduction: what is progress? How do we know when progress has taken place? And how do we evaluate whether that progress has been beneficial to Society? At the global level, I would have to say that this is a very difficult thing to do and that, ultimately, I do not know the answer to this question. And yet, despite the difficulty of the question, I find that there is a question - related to this general theme - which is being asked by many in the international library profession, by academic colleagues and by knowledgeable university administrators, by publishers and by research funders. This is the question of Open Access. Is this a revolutionary new way to disseminate research outcomes and research outputs, or is it a false dawn, a cul-de-sac? These questions are far too ambitious for me to answer in this paper. What I shall try to do is to look at the information landscape in the academic sector in the United Kingdom, and then attempt to draw some tentative conclusions from this study on the impact of the Open Access movement.

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