Week 12 Reflection: Open Access

What struck me the most about this week's topic was the simple fact that I had never heard about it. Never have I heard a colleague mention open access (OA), recommend OA, or talk about OA. This is different than our other weekly topics; even though I didn't necessarily have any experience with previous topics, I had at least heard the topics mentioned before at some point (except RSS feeds and aggregators - I admit, that was a mystery as well). Open access though, is different. This is the first time that I was made aware of these huge databases of free resources, and I have a feeling that many of my colleagues are also not aware that this type of resource exists. Some comments on Alice's voicethread echoed this.

In regards to Joseph J. Esposito's The devil you don't know: The unexpected future of Open Access publishing, I sympathize with Esposito's diatribe on the economics of OA. It is a huge issue, and is completely changing the face of both libraries and publishing. However, I feel at peace with this and not nearly as torn up about it as Esposito. This is simply because so many things are changing because of the internet and, frankly, OA is just one more change. Libraries are shifting anyway, indeed, many of the articles that we have read and studied in this course are about the digitally re-shifted library. In fact, Joyce Kasman Valenza and Doug Johnson state that "the library, as we once knew it, may no longer be relevant" (2009). Surely Esposito shouldn't be surprised that change would extend to the world of journals and publishing?

To extend his analogy of the telephone: phone companies did not go out of business as the world of telephony changed. Instead, they adapted, and as he said, he actually now pays much more for his telephone that his parents' generation. Librarians, writers, and publishers will need to adapt too: OA is just one more factor in the huge change that has been happening over the past decade, and will continue to happen as technology dictates what we do and how we do it.

In contrast, it was a pleasure to read Willinsky's article. It let me know that there are also intellectuals out there who, despite the economic issues that OA poses, are still in favour of OA and extremely positive about its direction. As someone who has not used OA before, it was important to see both sides of the coin.

Reference
Kasman Valenza, Joyce, and Doug Johnson. "Things That Keep Us Up at Night." School Library Journal (2009): n. pag. Web. November 25 2009. .